Genesis 9
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · Beginnings · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
29 verses · 604 words · ~3 min read · ~4 min listen
The Covenant of the Rainbow
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. 3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. 4But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. 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:
8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants 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. 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.”
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: 13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
14Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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. 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.”
17So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”
Noahʼs Shame and Canaanʼs Curse
18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his fatherʼs nakedness and told his two brothers outside.
23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their fatherʼs nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their fatherʼs nakedness.
24When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,
Shemʼs Blessing and Noahʼs Death
26He also declared:
28After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. 29So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Footnotes (2)
- a v20 Or was the first
- b v27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for expand.
Study notes on this chapter · 1
The curse on Canaan
After the flood Noah curses Canaan, Ham's son, to be a servant of servants to his brothers. Later Israel subdued the Canaanites, and Gibeonites were made woodcutters and water carriers. This passage has been tragically misused to justify the enslavement of Africans, a reading that has no basis in the text, which names only Canaan, and that most modern interpreters and churches reject.
When: Genesis (primeval history); Canaanite subjugation, c. 1400–950 BC.
Ways people read this (3)
- The curse foretells Israel's later dominance over the Canaanites (Joshua 9:23; 1 Kings 9:20-21).
- A literary explanation of Israel's relations with Canaan, written in the monarchy.
- The curse applies only to Canaan and cannot be applied to other peoples, as is now broadly affirmed across traditions.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.