Genesis 9
God Promises Not to Drown the World Again
God gave Noah and his sons his blessing and told them,
“Be fruitful, multiply, and populate the earth. Every animal will be afraid of you, because they’ve all been handed over to you. Everything that lives will be food for you. I give you all of it like I gave you the vegetation. Just don’t eat the meat of anything that’s still alive with its blood in it. One day I’ll demand the lifeblood of every living thing—including you. I’ll require each person’s soul.
“Whoever spills the blood of another human being will have his own blood spilled by someone else, because God made mankind to resemble himself.
“Be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth and become numerous throughout it.”
“I myself will make an agreement with you, your descendants, and all life on earth: All of you won’t ever be wiped out by a flood again. There won’t ever be a flood that destroys the earth again. I’ll put my rainbow up in the clouds as a sign of this agreement I’m making between myself and the earth. Whenever we see that bow in the clouds, it will reminded me of my agreement to never destroy all life on earth with a flood again.”
Noah’s Family Gets Off the Boat
Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth got off the boat with their dad. Ham was the patriarch of Canaan [which means “lowland” and is located near modern-day Israel]. The whole earth was populated from these three sons.
Noah Curses Ham for Embarrassing Him
After that, Noah started farming and planted a vineyard.
One day he got drunk from its wine and got naked inside his tent. Ham (Canaan’s patriarch) saw his father’s indecency and pointed it out to his brothers who were outside. But Shem and Japheth grabbed a towel and covered Noah’s private parts while they looked the other way so they wouldn’t see anything. When Noah woke up, he realized what his youngest son had done to him, so he said,
“Curse Canaan! He’ll be a slave of slaves under his brothers.”
“Bless the Existing One who is Shem’s God. Let Canaan be his slave.”
“May God let Japheth sprawl and live in Shem’s tents while Canaan serves him.”
Noah lived for another 350 years after the flood and died at the age of 950.
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