The Covenant of the Rainbow

1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 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— 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 flesh with its life—its blood—you⁺ shall not eat. 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 the man,

by the man his blood shall be shed;

for in the image of God

He has made the man.

7And you⁺,

be fruitful and multiply;

swarm on the earth

and multiply on it.”

8And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9“And I—behold, I, am establishing My covenant with you⁺ and with your⁺ seed after you⁺, 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 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 that I am giving between Me, and between you⁺, and between every living soul that is with you⁺, for generations everlasting. 13My bow I have set in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between Me and between the earth.

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

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

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

20And Noah began to be a man† of the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21And he drank from the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself within his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside.

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.

24And Noah awoke from his wine and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25And he said,

“Cursed be Canaan!

A servant of servants

he shall be to his brothers.”

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death

26And he said,

“Blessed be YHWH, the God of Shem!

And may Canaan be a servant to him.

27May God enlarge Japheth,†

and may he dwell in the tents of Shem,

and may Canaan be a servant to them.”

28And after the flood Noah lived three hundred years and fifty years. 29And all the days of Noah were nine hundred years and fifty years, and he died.