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G ENESIS 9
page 11
of the ground was drying. 14 Two more months
went by,* and at last the earth was dry!
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Leave the boat,
all of you—you and your wife, and your sons
and their wives. 17 Release all the animals—the
birds, the livestock, and the small animals that
scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful
and multiply throughout the earth.”
18 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their
wives left the boat. 19 And all of the large and
small animals and birds came out of the boat,
pair by pair.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and
there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that
purpose.* 21 And the Lord was pleased with
the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself,
“I will never again curse the ground because
of the human race, even though everything
they think or imagine is bent toward evil from
childhood. I will never again destroy all living
things. 22 As long as the earth remains, there will
be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer
and winter, day and night.”
God Confirms His Covenant
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and
told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the
earth. 2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds
of the sky, all the small animals that scurry
along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will
look on you with fear and terror. I have placed
them in your power. 3 I have given them to you
for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. 4 But you must never eat any meat that
still has the lifeblood in it.
5 “And I will require the blood of anyone who
takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills
a person, it must die. And anyone who murders
a fellow human must die. 6 If anyone takes a
human life, that person’s life will also be taken
by human hands. For God made human beings*
in his own image. 7 Now be fruitful and multiply,
and repopulate the earth.”
8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9 “I hereby
confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals that were on the
boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all
the wild animals—every living creature on earth.
11 Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you.
Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my
covenant with you and with all living creatures, for
all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant
with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send
clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in
9
8:14 Hebrew The twenty-seventh day of the second month
arrived; see note on 8:13. 8:20 Hebrew every clean animal
and every clean bird. 9:6 Or man; Hebrew reads ha-adam.
9:27 Hebrew May he live in the tents of Shem.
the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant
with you and with all living creatures. Never again
will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see
the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the
eternal covenant between God and every living
creature on earth.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes,
this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”
Noah’s Sons
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the boat
with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
(Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19 From these
three sons of Noah came all the people who now
populate the earth.
20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the
ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he
drank some wine he had made, and he became
drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked
and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then
Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their
shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their
father. As they did this, they looked the other way
so they would not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he
learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:
“May Canaan be cursed!
May he be the lowest of servants to his
relatives.”
26 Then
27
Noah said,
“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed,
and may Canaan be his servant!
May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,*
and may Canaan be his servant.”
28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great
flood. 29 He lived 950 years, and then he died.
• Abortion
G E N E S I S 9:6
The Bible makes it clear that murder,
killing another person, is a sin. One of
God’s Ten Commandments is a prohibition
against murder (Exodus 20:13). In the
abortion debate, the question becomes,
Is the unborn child really a person yet? If
the unborn child is a person, then aborting
that child becomes murder. Murder carries
such grave consequences because it
ends a human life that still holds so much
potential, and it puts authority over human
life into our hands rather than leaving it in
God’s hands.