9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Breed, multiply and fill the earth.
9:2
Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea; they are placed in your hands.
9:3
Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything,
9:4
with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it.
9:5
And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life.
9:6
He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created.
9:7
Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!'
9:8
God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons,
9:9
'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come,
9:10
and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth.
9:11
And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.'
9:12
'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:
9:13
I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
9:14
When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,
9:15
I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things.
9:16
When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.'
9:17
'That', God told Noah, 'is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.'
9:18
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth-Ham being the father of Canaan.
9:19
These three were Noah's sons, and from these the whole earth was peopled.
9:20
Noah, a tiller of the soil, was the first to plant the vine.
9:21
He drank some of the wine, and while he was drunk, he lay uncovered in his tent.
9:22
Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.
9:23
Shem and Japheth took a cloak and they both put it over their shoulders, and walking backwards, covered their father's nakedness; they kept their faces turned away, and they did not look at their father naked.
9:24
When Noah awoke from his stupor he learned what his youngest son had done to him,
9:25
and said: Accursed be Canaan, he shall be his brothers' meanest slave.
9:26
He added: Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem, let Canaan be his slave!
9:27
May God make space for Japheth, may he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave!
9:28
After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.
9:29
In all, Noah's life lasted nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.
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