The Covenant of the Rainbow

(Genesis 6:13-22)

1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth on the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things: 4But flesh with the life of it, which is its blood, shall ye not eat. 5And surely your blood of your lives will I require: at the hand of every beast will I require it: and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

6Whoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

7And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

8And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. 13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17And God said to Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Noah's Sons

18And the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were the sons of Noah: and from them was the whole earth overspread.

Noah's Shame and Canaan's Curse

20And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21And he drank the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 24And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.

25And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.

Shem's Blessing and Noah's Death

26And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

27God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

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