Genesis 9

This chapter concludes the account of Noah's Flood within the primeval history of Genesis (the narratives preceding Abraham). After Noah leaves the ark and builds an altar in Genesis 8, God in this chapter bestows the blessing of a new beginning and establishes a covenant.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 God blesses Noah and his sons, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." He gives every living creature as food but forbids eating flesh with its blood, and He requires a reckoning from anyone who sheds human blood.
• Verses 8–17 God establishes a covenant with humanity and with every living creature, promising never again to destroy all life by a flood, and He sets the rainbow in the clouds as its sign.
• Verses 18–23 Noah plants a vineyard, becomes drunk with wine, and lies uncovered in his tent. Ham sees this and tells his brothers, while Shem and Japheth walk in backward and cover him with a garment.
• Verses 24–27 When Noah awakes from his wine, he curses Canaan and blesses Shem and Japheth.
• Verses 28–29 Noah lives 350 years after the Flood and dies at the age of 950.

Key Verses

• Genesis 9:6 "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" — grounds the dignity of human life in the image of God.
• Genesis 9:13 "I do set my bow in the cloud" — the sign of the Noahic covenant.

Characters and Places

• Noah — the man who survived the Flood and received the covenant.
• Shem, Ham, and Japheth — Noah's three sons, who become the ancestors of the peoples of the whole earth.
• Canaan — Ham's son, who receives Noah's curse.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 6 is sometimes cited in support of capital punishment. Others, by contrast, read the verse not as a legal statute but as a declaration of the weight of human life.
• The prohibition concerning blood in verse 4 is read alongside Acts 15:28–29. Most churches understand it as a dietary regulation. Jehovah's Witnesses cite these passages as the basis for refusing blood transfusions.
• The text curses Canaan, not Ham. In the modern era the so-called "curse of Ham" was invoked to justify the enslavement of Black people, but today most churches and scholars regard this interpretation as a distortion of the text. The text does not specify exactly what Ham's wrongdoing was, and the various conjectures are later interpretations.
• The rainbow also appears in the throne vision of Revelation 4.

In the Korean Church

• Sunday schools frequently teach the rainbow covenant as the conclusion of the Noah story.
• Verses 20–21 are commonly cited in sermons warning against drinking alcohol.