Genesis 9

1God blessed Noah and his sons. God said to them: Have many children. Fill the earth again with your people.

2Every animal on earth and every bird in the air will be afraid of you. So will every animal that crawls and every fish in the sea. All of them will be under your control.

3In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth. It is yours.

4But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it. Blood is like the life of someone.

5I will demand an answer for the blood of your lives. I will demand it from every animal. I will also demand a human life from every other human, even from a brother.

6Whoever sheds human blood, that person's blood will be shed by other humans, because God made humans in His own image.

7Noah, you must have many children and their children must have more children. The earth must be full of people.

8God said to Noah and his sons:

9I, God, now make My agreement with you and with your people who will live after you.

10I am also making this agreement with all the birds and the animals that were in the ark with you.

11This is My agreement with you: Never again will a flood destroy all life on the earth.

12God said to Noah: I will give you a sign of the agreement I have made. It is with you and with all the people and animals. I will remember this forever.

13I have put My rainbow in the sky. The rainbow is the sign of this agreement between Me and the earth.

14When I bring clouds over the earth, you will see the rainbow in the clouds.

15When I see this rainbow, I will remember My agreement. It is between Me, you and every living thing on the earth. This rainbow says that a flood will never again destroy all life on the earth.

16When I look and see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the agreement that lasts forever. It is between Me and every living thing on the earth.

17So God said to Noah: This rainbow is the sign of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.

18Noah's sons came out of the ark with Noah. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)

19These 3 men were Noah's sons. All the people on earth came from these 3 sons.

20Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard.

21One day Noah drank too much wine and became drunk. Noah lay uncovered inside his tent.

22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his brothers who were outside the tent.

23Shem and Japheth took a robe and put it across their shoulders. They walked backward into the tent. Then they covered their father without looking at him.

24So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him.

25Noah said: May there be a curse on Canaan. May Canaan be a servant to his brothers.

26Noah also said: Praise the LORD, the God of Shem. Canaan will be Shem's servant.

27I pray that God will give Japheth more and more fields and land. Japheth will live in Shem's tents. Canaan will be Japheth's servant.

28After the flood Noah lived 350 years.

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