Genesis 9

1God 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 animal of the earth and on every bird of the sky, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.

3Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

4But you must not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood, still in it.

5And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand it from every animal. And from human beings, from each one for the life of his fellow, I will demand an accounting for human life.

6Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being his blood will be shed, for in the image of God he made humankind.

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

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

9“Now I am establishing my covenant with you and with your offspring after you,

10and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and every wild animal of the earth with you—all that came out of the ark, every animal of the earth.

11I will establish my covenant with you: never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

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

13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,

15I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

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

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

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

20Noah, a man of the soil, began to plant a vineyard.

21He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered inside his tent.

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

23But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it across both their shoulders, and walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

25he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves he will be to his brothers.”

26He also said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem! May Canaan be his slave.

27May God enlarge Japheth, and may he live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.”

28After the flood Noah lived 350 years.

29So all the days of Noah were 950 years, and then he died.