God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth.
The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which the earth is astir—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand.
Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.
You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it.
But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man!
Whoever sheds the blood of man,
By man shall his blood be shed;
For in His image
Did God make man.
Be fertile, then, and increase; abound on the earth and increase on it.”
And God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
“I now establish My covenant with you and your offspring to come,
and with every living thing that is with you—birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well—all that have come out of the ark, every living thing on earth.
I will maintain My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God further said, “This is the sign that I set for the covenant between Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to come.
I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth.
That,” God said to Noah, “shall be the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on earth.”
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth—Ham being the father of Canaan.
These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole world branched out.
Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.
He drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent.
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.
But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned the other way, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him,
he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
The lowest of slaves
Shall he be to his brothers.”
And he said,
“Blessed be the LORD,
The God of Shem;
Let Canaan be a slave to them.
May God enlargeaHeb. yapht, play on Heb. yepheth “Japheth.” Japheth,
And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
And let Canaan be a slave to them.”
Noah lived after the Flood 350 years.
And all the days of Noah came to 950 years; then he died.
