Genesis 9:1-6

God’s Covenant with Noah and Humankind

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every animal of the earth, and on every bird of heaven, [and] on everything that moves upon the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they shall be given.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As [I gave] the green plants to you, I have [now] given you everything.
4 Only you shall not eat {raw flesh with blood in it}.
5 And {your lifeblood} I will require; from {every animal} I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of [each] man to his brother I will require the life of humankind.
6 "[As for] the one shedding the blood of humankind, by humankind his blood shall be shed, for God made humankind in his own image.

Genesis 9:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 9

In this chapter we have an account of God's blessing Noah and his sons, being just come out of the ark, with a renewal of the blessing of propagating their species, and replenishing the earth, the dominion over the creatures, and a freedom from the fear of them; with liberty to eat flesh, only it must not be eaten with blood; with a providential care and preservation of their lives from men and beasts, by making a law that that man or beast should die that shed man's blood, Ge 9:1-6 and after repeating the blessing of procreation, Ge 9:7 mention is made of a covenant God made with Noah, his sons, and all the creatures, that he would drown the world no more, the token of which should be the rainbow in the cloud, Ge 9:8-17 the names of the sons of Noah are observed, by whom the earth was repeopled, Ge 9:18,19 and seem to be observed for the sake of an event after recorded; Noah having planted a vineyard, and drank too freely of the wine of it, lay down uncovered in his tent, which Ham seeing, told his two brothers of it, who in a very modest manner covered him, Ge 9:20-23 of all which Noah being sensible when he awoke, cursed Canaan the son of Ham, and blessed Shem and Japheth, Ge 9:24-27 and the chapter is concluded with the age and death of Noah, Ge 9:28,29.

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Footnotes 5

  • [a]. Or "the sky"
  • [b]. Literally "flesh with its life, its blood"
  • [c]. Or "only"; the same word that occurs at the beginning of v. 4
  • [d]. Literally "your blood belonging to your life"
  • [e]. Literally "from the hand of every animal"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.