The Covenant with Noah
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, every bird of the sky, everything that moves on the ground, and all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Every moving creature 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 lifeblood still in it. 5And for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting. I will demand it from every animal, and from every human being; from each one’s brother I will demand an accounting for the life of a human being. 6Whoever sheds human blood, by a human hand will that person’s blood be shed, for God made humankind in his own image. 7As for you, be fruitful and multiply; teem over the earth and multiply on it.” 8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9“As for me, I now establish 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 — everything that came out of the ark with you, every living thing on the earth. 11I establish my covenant with you: never again will all flesh be cut off by floodwaters, 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 with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be a 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 every kind — never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all flesh on the earth.”
Noah’s Sons and the Shame of Ham
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, was the first 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 naked and told his two brothers outside. 23But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it across their shoulders, and walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father naked. 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 will he be to his brothers.” 26He also said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. 27May God make room for Japheth; let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave.” 28After the flood, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. 29Altogether, Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.
