Genesis 9:1-29
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And 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 upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5 And 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.
6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10 And 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.
11 And 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.
12 And 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:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And 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.
16 And 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.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.a
19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23 And 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.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.b
27 God shall enlargec Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
The new order in human affairs was initiated by the bestowment of a blessing on Noah and his sons. The first note of change is seen in the word which declared man's relation to the lower orders. In Eden man had governed by love and his own kingliness. With the loss of that kingliness resulting from his disobedience and rebellion, he had lost his true power of dominion, and that must now be exercised by fear and dread directly implanted by God in all the lower orders of life over which man was to rule.
Moreover, an alteration was made in the law of human interrelationship. A sterner rule than family discipline must be set up. Man must now hold the sword of justice, and himself insist on obedience. Another change concerned human sustenance. In addition to the green herb of the past, animal food was permitted under restrictions.
The earth was thus to be repeopled by a race living under new conditions, and at this point a new covenant between God and man came into force. Its terms reminded man that the promises of God are conditional.
A token of the covenant was chosen and established. God appropriated an existing wonder as the sign and seal thereof, the rainbow. The rainbow is born of light falling on raindrops and so is significant of judgment as related to love. Man was to look on this, remembering that God also was looking on it.
The chapter ends with the story of a startlingly sudden plunge into darkness. Noah is seen yielding to fleshly appetite. In the presence of the degradation of their father, the character of the sons was manifest. One, himself degraded, yielded to curiosity. Two, ashamed of the sin of their father, attempted to hide him. The cursing and blessing which fell from the lips of Noah were no capricious passing of sentences. Rather, they formed a clear statement of the tendency of character. The man in the grip of evil moved to slavery, while the man influenced by purity and love proceeded to government and blessing.