Genesis 9

Modern

Literal

The Covenant of the Rainbow

¹And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

¹And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

²The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.

²And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, and on every bird of the heavens, on all that moves on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are given—

³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.

³every moving thing that has in it life, for you it shall be for food; as the green plants, I have given to you everything.

⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

⁴But flesh with its life—its blood—you shall not eat.

⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:

⁵And surely your blood for your lives I will require; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of the man; from the hand of each man’s brother I will require for the life of the man.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man his blood will be shed;

for in His own image

God has made mankind.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of the man, by the man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He has made the man.

⁷But as for you,

be fruitful and multiply;

spread out across the earth

and multiply upon it.”

⁷And you, be fruitful and multiply; swarm on the earth and multiply on it.”

⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,

⁸And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

⁹“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you,

⁹“And I—behold, I, am establishing My covenant with you and with your seed after you,

¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark.

¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, among the bird, among the livestock, and among every beast of the earth with you, from all those going out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

¹¹And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹¹And I have establishd My covenant with you, that all flesh shall never again be cut off by the waters of the flood; and there shall never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between Me, and between you, and between every living soul that is with you, for generations everlasting.

¹³I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

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

¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

¹⁴And it shall come to pass in My bringing a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.

¹⁵I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

¹⁵And I will remember My covenant, that is between Me, and between you, and between every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”

¹⁶And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living soul of all flesh that is on the earth.”

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”

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

Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse

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

¹⁸And the sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham—he was the father of Canaan.

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

¹⁹These were the three sons of Noah, and from these all the earth was scattered.

²⁰Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^a to plant a vineyard.

²⁰And Noah began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard.

²¹But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.

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

²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside.

²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²³And Shem took—and Japheth—the garment, and they laid it on the shoulders of the two of them and they went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, and the nakedness of their father they did not see.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

²⁴And Noah awoke from his wine and he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

²⁵he said,

“Cursed be Canaan!

A servant of servants

shall he be to his brothers.”

²⁵And he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.”

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death

²⁶He also declared:

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the servant of Shem.

²⁶And he said, “Blessed be YHWH, the God of Shem! And may Canaan be a servant to him.

²⁷May God expand the territory of Japheth;^a

may he dwell in the tents of Shem,

and may Canaan be his servant.”

²⁷May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be a servant to them.”

²⁸After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.

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

²⁹So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

²⁹And all the days of Noah were nine hundred years and fifty years, and he died.