Genesis - Chapter 9

¹ God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Breed, multiply and fill the earth.

² Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea; they are placed in your hands.

³ Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything,

⁴ with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it.

⁵ And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life.

⁶ He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created.

⁷ Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!'

⁸ God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons,

⁹ 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come,

¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth.

¹¹ And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.'

¹² 'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:

¹³ I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴ When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,

¹⁵ I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things.

¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.'

¹⁷ 'That', God told Noah, 'is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.'

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth-Ham being the father of Canaan.

¹⁹ These three were Noah's sons, and from these the whole earth was peopled.

²⁰ Noah, a tiller of the soil, was the first to plant the vine.

²¹ He drank some of the wine, and while he was drunk, he lay uncovered in his tent.

²² Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.

²³ Shem and Japheth took a cloak and they both put it over their shoulders, and walking backwards, covered their father's nakedness; they kept their faces turned away, and they did not look at their father naked.

²⁴ When Noah awoke from his stupor he learned what his youngest son had done to him,

²⁵ and said: Accursed be Canaan, he shall be his brothers' meanest slave.

²⁶ He added: Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem, let Canaan be his slave!

²⁷ May God make space for Japheth, may he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave!

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.

²⁹ In all, Noah's life lasted nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

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