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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.

Book of Genesis Chapters

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