Covenant with Noah. 1#God reaffirms without change the original blessing and mandate of 1:28. In the Mesopotamian epic Atrahasis, on which the Genesis story is partly modeled, the gods changed their original plan by restricting human population through such means as childhood diseases, birth demons, and mandating celibacy among certain groups of women. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.#Gn 1:22, 28; 8:17. 2#Pre-flood creatures, including human beings, are depicted as vegetarians (1:29–30). In view of the human propensity to violence, God changes the original prohibition against eating meat. Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 3#Gn 1:29–30; Dt 12:15. Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 4#Lv 7:26–27; 17:4; Dt 12:16, 23; 1 Sm 14:33; Acts 15:20. Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.#Because a living being dies when it loses most of its blood, the ancients regarded blood as the seat of life, and therefore as sacred. Jewish tradition considered the prohibition against eating meat with blood to be binding on all, because it was given by God to Noah, the new ancestor of all humankind; therefore the early Christian Church retained it for a time (Acts 15:20, 29). 5Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.#Gn 4:10–11; Ex 21:12.

6#The image of God, given to the first man and woman and transmitted to every human being, is the reason that no violent attacks can be made upon human beings. That image is the basis of the dignity of every individual who, in some sense, “represents” God in the world. Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being,

by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed;

For in the image of God

have human beings been made.#Gn 1:26–27; Lv 24:17; Nm 35:33; Jas 3:9.

7Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.#Gn 1:28; 8:17; 9:2; Jas 3:7.

8#God makes a covenant with Noah and his descendants and, remarkably, with all the animals who come out of the ark: never again shall the world be destroyed by flood. The sign of this solemn promise is the appearance of a rainbow. God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you#Gn 6:18. 10and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. 11I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.#Sir 44:18; Is 54:9. 12God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13#Sir 43:12. I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.#Is 54:9. 16When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. 17God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.

Noah and His Sons. 18#The character of the three sons is sketched here. The fault is not Noah’s (for he could not be expected to know about the intoxicating effect of wine) but Ham’s, who shames his father by looking on his nakedness, and then tells the other sons. Ham’s conduct is meant to prefigure the later shameful sexual practices of the Canaanites, which are alleged in numerous biblical passages. The point of the story is revealed in Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan and his blessing of Shem and Japheth. The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.#Gn 5:32; 10:1. 19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

20Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.#Lam 4:21; Hb 2:15. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. 23Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said:

“Cursed be Canaan!

The lowest of slaves

shall he be to his brothers.”#Dt 27:16; Wis 12:11.

26He also said:

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!

Let Canaan be his slave.

27May God expand Japheth,#In the Hebrew text there is a play on the words yapt (“expand”) and yepet (“Japheth”).

and may he dwell among the tents of Shem;

and let Canaan be his slave.”

28Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc

Learn More

Berĕshith (Genesis) 9

1And Elohim blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth.

2“And the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea – into your hand they have been given.

3“Every creeping creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all, as I gave the green plants.

4“But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood.

5“But only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I require the life of man.

6“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image of Elohim has He made man.

7“As for you, be fruitful and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it.”

8And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ and to his sons with him, saying,

9“And I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you,

10and with every living being that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.

11“And I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, for all generations to come:

13“I shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

14“And it shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud,

15and I shall remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living being of all flesh, and never again let the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16“And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.

17And Elohim said to Noaḥ, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

18And the sons of Noaḥ who went out of the ark were Shĕm and Ḥam and Yapheth. And Ḥam was the father of Kena‛an.

19These three were the sons of Noaḥ, and all the earth was overspread from them.

20And Noaḥ, a man of the soil, began and planted a vineyard.

21And he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

22And Ḥam, the father of Kena‛an, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23So Shĕm and Yapheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father, but their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24And Noaḥ awoke from his wine, and he knew what his younger son had done to him,

25and he said, “Cursed is Kena‛an, let him become a servant of servants to his brothers.”

26And he said, “Blessed be יהוה, the Elohim of Shĕm, and let Kena‛an become his servant.

27“Let Elohim enlarge Yapheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shĕm. And let Kena‛an become his servant.”

28And Noaḥ lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29So all the days of Noaḥ were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

Learn More

Choose your language

Genesis 9

Berĕshith (Genesis) 9