Genesis 9:1-7

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ¹"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

2 ²The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.

3 ³Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And ⁴as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

4 But you shall not eat flesh with its ⁵life, that is, its blood.

5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: ⁶from every beast I will require it and ⁷from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

6 ⁸"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, ⁹for God made man in his own image.

7 And you,^[a] be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it."

Genesis 9:1-7 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.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 1:22, 28; Genesis 8:17
• 2. [Psalms 8:6-8; James 3:7]
• 3. Deuteronomy 12:15; 1 Timothy 4:3, 4
• 4. Genesis 1:29
• 5. Lev. 17:10, 11, 14; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23; 1 Samuel 14:33; Acts 15:20, 29
• 6. Exodus 21:28
• 7. Genesis 4:10, 11
• 8. Exodus 21:12, 14; Leviticus 24:17; Numbers 35:31, 33; [Matthew 26:52; Revelation 13:10]
• 9. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:1; James 3:9

Footnotes

• [a]. In Hebrew you is plural