1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. 4 But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. 5 And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: 6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. 7 But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark. 11 And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I 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 life. 16 And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.” 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated. 20 Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” 26 He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem. 27 May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” 28 After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. 29 So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Genesis · Majority Standard Bible
Genesis 9 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Ham
A son of Noah whose descendants filled the Table of Nations.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 9:18–25; 10:6–20
Japheth
A son of Noah, ancestor of the northern and coastland nations.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 9:18–27; 10:2–5
Noah
A righteous man who found favor with God and rode out the flood in an ark.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 5:28–9:29
Shem
Noah's blessed son, ancestor of the Semitic peoples and of Abraham.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 9:18–10:31; 11:10–26
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 1:28; Genesis 9:7; Genesis 1:22; Genesis 8:17; Isaiah 51:2
- 2 Psalm 8:4–8; Hosea 2:18; James 3:7; Genesis 1:28; Leviticus 26:6
- 3 Romans 14:14; 1 Timothy 4:3–5; Colossians 2:21–22; Deuteronomy 12:15; 1 Corinthians 10:31
- 4 Deuteronomy 12:23; Deuteronomy 12:16; Deuteronomy 15:23; Acts 15:20; Leviticus 7:26
- 5 Exodus 21:28–29; Exodus 21:12; Genesis 4:9–10; Psalm 9:12; Numbers 35:31–33
- 6 Leviticus 24:17; Matthew 26:52; Revelation 13:10; Exodus 21:12–14; Numbers 35:33
- 7 Genesis 9:1; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 9:19; Genesis 8:17
- 9 Genesis 6:18; Isaiah 54:9–10; Romans 1:3; Genesis 9:11; Genesis 17:7–8
- 10 Psalm 145:9; Job 38:1–41; Job 41:1–34; Genesis 9:15–16; Psalm 36:5–6
- 11 Isaiah 54:9; Genesis 8:21–22; 2 Peter 3:7; Genesis 7:21–23; 2 Peter 3:11
- 12 Genesis 17:11; Matthew 26:26–28; Exodus 12:13; Exodus 13:16; Genesis 9:17
- 13 Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 10:1; Revelation 4:3
- 15 Deuteronomy 7:9; Isaiah 54:8–10; Ezekiel 16:60; Exodus 28:12; Psalm 106:45
- 16 Jeremiah 32:40; Isaiah 54:8–10; Genesis 17:19; 2 Samuel 23:5; Genesis 17:13
- 18 Genesis 10:1; Genesis 10:6; Genesis 9:25–27; Genesis 9:23; 1 Chronicles 1:4
- 19 Genesis 10:2–32; 1 Chronicles 1:4–28; Genesis 8:17; Genesis 5:32
- 20 Proverbs 12:11; Isaiah 28:24–26; Deuteronomy 28:30; Deuteronomy 20:6; Genesis 3:23
- 21 Habakkuk 2:15–16; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:31–32; Galatians 5:21; Titus 2:2
- 22 Proverbs 30:17; Galatians 6:1; Matthew 18:15; 1 Corinthians 13:6; Psalm 40:15
- 23 Galatians 6:1; Exodus 20:12; 1 Peter 2:17; 1 Peter 4:8; Romans 13:7
- 25 Deuteronomy 27:16; Joshua 9:23; Judges 1:28–30; 1 Kings 9:20–21; Joshua 9:27
- 26 Psalm 144:15; Hebrews 11:16; Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 27:37; Luke 3:23–36
- 27 Romans 15:12; Romans 11:12; Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 11:9–10; Ephesians 2:13–14
- 29 Genesis 5:27; Psalm 90:10; Genesis 5:32; Genesis 5:20; Genesis 5:5
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… when he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to Me." And as their blood will be inquired after, He said to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls will I require, [even] from the hand of all beasts;" and again, "Whosoever will shed man's blood, it shall be shed for his blood." In …
… was younger than the first and older than the last born--had sinned against him, he cursed him not in his own person, but in his son's (his own grandson's), in the words, "Cursed be the lad Canaan; a servant shall he be unto his brethren." Now Canaan was born of Ham, who, so far from covering his sleeping father's nakedness, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Which sort of thing was done with respect to man upon his creation, "For the dread of you," it is said, "and the fear of you shall be on the wild beasts," and it came not to pass, for he proved himself unworthy of the sovereignty, even as did Judas also.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… reason Jacob by his father's blessing became lord of Esau, in order that the foolish son, who had not intelligence, his proper guardian, might, even though he wished it not, be benefited by his prudent brother. So Canaan shall be "a servant unto his brethren" because, since his father Ham was unwise, he was uninstructed in virtue.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
… and our Lord's sufferings typically set forth, in the case of Noah, when he drank wine, and was drunken, and was uncovered within his tent, and his nakedness was exposed by his second son, and was carefully hidden by his elder and his younger sons. It is not necessary to mention the other circumstances in detail, as it is only …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)