Genesis 9

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

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

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

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

⁵ And I shal demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Ofman as regards his fel ow-man, I shal 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 mancreated.

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

⁸ God spoke as fol ows 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 shal maintain my covenant with you: that never again shal all living things be destroyed by thewaters of a flood, nor shal 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 everyliving creature with you for al ages to come:

¹³ I now set my bow in the clouds and it wil 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 shal recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word al living things,and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy al living things.

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

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

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

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

²⁰ Noah, a til er 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 shal 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 al , Noah's life lasted nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.