< Genesis 9 >
1 God blessed Noah and his sons, and told them, “Reproduce, increase, and spread throughout the earth!
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “I want you to have many children who will live all over the earth.
2 All animals will be very afraid of you—this includes all the birds, all the creatures that run along the ground, and all the fish in the sea. You are in charge of them.
All the wild animals on the earth and all the birds, all the creatures that scurry across the ground, and all the fish, will be very afraid [DOU] of you. I have put them under your control.
3 Every living creature that moves will be food for you, as well as all the green plants.
Just as I previously said you could eat green plants for food, now I am saying you can eat everything that lives and moves.
4 But do not eat meat with the lifeblood still in it.
[It is blood that causes creatures to be alive], therefore you must not eat meat that still has blood in it after the animal is killed. [After you have drained the blood out, you may cook it and eat it].
5 If your blood is shed by any animal, I will call it to account; and if your blood is shed by any person, I will call that person to account.
I insist that murderers must be executed. Animals that kill people must also be executed. The reason that everyone who murders someone else must be executed is that
6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human being will have their blood shed by human beings. For God made human beings in his image.
I made people to be like myself [in many ways]. So someone who murders another human being must be executed by others, [because he killed someone who is like me].
7 Reproduce, increase, and spread throughout the earth—have many descendants!”
As for you, I want you to produce many children, in order that they and their descendants may live all over the earth.”
8 Then God told Noah and his sons who were there with him,
God also said to Noah and his sons,
9 “Listen, I'm making my agreement with you and your descendants,
“Listen carefully. I am now making a solemn promise to you and with your descendants,
10 and with all the animals around you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals of the earth—every animal that accompanied you on the ark.
and with all the living creatures that are with you—including the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals—every living creature on the earth that came out of the boat with you.
11 In my agreement I'm promising you that I won't ever again destroy all life by means of a flood—there won't be a destructive flood like this again.”
This is the promise that I am making to you: I will never again destroy all living creatures by a flood, or destroy everything else on the earth by a flood.”
12 Then God said, “I'm going to give you a sign to confirm the agreement I'm making between me and you and all living creatures, an agreement that will last for all generations.
Then God said to him, “This is the sign to guarantee that I will keep the promise that I am making to you and to all living creatures, a promise that I will keep forever:
13 I've placed my rainbow in the clouds, and this will be the sign of my agreement with you and with all life on earth.
[From time to time] I will put a rainbow in the sky. It will remind me of my promise that I have made to you and everything on the earth.
14 Whenever I make clouds form over the earth and the rainbow appears,
When I cause rain to fall from the clouds, and a rainbow appears in the sky,
15 it will remind me of my agreement between me and you and every kind of living creature that floodwaters won't ever again destroy all life.
it will remind me about the promise that I have made to you and all living creatures, my promise that there will never again be a flood that will destroy all living creatures.
16 I will see the rainbow in the clouds and it will remind me of the eternal agreement between God and every kind of living creature that lives on the earth.”
Whenever there is a rainbow in the sky, I will see it, and I will think about the promise that I have made to every living creature that is upon the earth, a promise that I will keep forever.”
17 Then God told Noah, “This is the sign of the agreement I'm making between me and every creature on earth.”
Then God said to Noah, “The rainbow will be the sign of the promise that I have made to all the creatures that live on the earth.”
18 Noah's sons who left the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of the Canaanites.)
The sons of Noah who came out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham later became the father of Canaan.
19 All the people who are spread over the world are descended from these three sons of Noah.
All the people on the earth are descended from those three sons of Noah.
20 Noah started to cultivate the ground as a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Noah was a farmer. He planted grapevines.
21 He drank some of the wine he'd produced, got drunk, and fell asleep in his tent, naked.
[When they later produced grapes, he made wine from the grapes]. One day, when he drank too much of the wine, he became drunk, and he lay naked in his tent.
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's private parts and went and told his two brothers who were outside.
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father lying naked in the tent. So he went outside and told his two older brothers what he had seen.
23 Shem and Japheth picked up a cloak and, holding it over their shoulders, walked in backwards and covered up their father's privates. They made sure to look the other way so they wouldn't see their father's privates.
Then Shem and Japheth took a large cloth and placed it across their backs, and walked backwards into the tent. They covered their father’s naked body with the cloth. Their faces were turned away from their father, so they did not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his drunken sleep, he discovered what his youngest son had done,
When Noah woke up [and was sober again], he found out how wrongfully Ham, his youngest son, had behaved toward him.
25 and said, “May Canaan be cursed! He will be the lowest kind of slave and will serve his brothers!”
He said, “I am cursing Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, and his descendants. They will be like slaves to their uncles.
26 Then Noah continued, “May the Lord be blessed, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.
I will ask God to enlarge the territory that belongs to Japheth, and allow his descendants to live peacefully among the descendants of Shem [MTY].
27 May God give Japtheth plenty of space to accommodate his many descendants, and may they live at peace among Shem's people, and may Canaan also be his slave.”
And I desire that Canaan’s descendants will be like slaves of Japheth’s descendants.”
28 Noah lived for another 350 years after the flood.
Noah lived 350 more years after the flood.
29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
He died when he was 950 years old.