Genesis 9 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Genesis 9

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The 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 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

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

7 And you,¹ be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah’s Descendants

18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.²

20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.³ 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

  “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem;
    and let Canaan be his servant.
27   May God enlarge Japheth,⁴
    and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
    and let Canaan be his servant.”

28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

Footnotes

[1] 9:7 In Hebrew you is plural
[2] 9:19 Or from these the whole earth was populated
[3] 9:20 Or Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard
[4] 9:27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for enlarge

Commentary

v1: Man's role on the earth remains, as Noah as his family are commanded to be fruitful. This command echoes the commend in 1.28, "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." To fill the earth means to spread out, not remain in one place.

Compare Acts 1.8; where the Holy Spirit promises to equip God's people to take the good news of Christ into all the world.

v2: Fear and dread; enmity and authority and responsibility. There is no longer the harmony of man and beast, that allowed them to dwell in the ark for 370 days.

v3: The explicit provision, that man can eat animals as well as fruit and vegetables.

v4-6: The sanctity of human life; man's responsibility is to exercise judgment, especially over those who take the life of another; thus man carries out God's judgment. In Romans 13.1, the authorities are appointed by God, even in a society which is not theocratic.

We note that both Cain (Genesis 4:8) and Lamech (Genesis 4:23) were guilty of murder.

v7: Repeating v1; be fruitful, increase, multiply.

v8-9: God's covenant with Noah. The world that existed has been destroyed by water, 2 Peter 3.6. The fresh start required a new covenant.

v10-12: Noah is effectively the representative of man and beast, "very living creature with you." And both man and beast are accountable before God for bloodshed.

The scripture is clear that all living creatures outside the ark died, and that this covenant is with all living creatures who came from the ark. Here is hope and promise for the refilling of the earth. We note also that the earth will never again be destroyed by a flood.

v13-16: The rainbow in the cloud; the special reminder of God's mercy and faithfulness comes in difficult times. The rainbow is a reminder both to God and to man, although it is impossible that God should forget His covenant.

v17: The rainbow is the constant reminder of the perpetual covenant.

v18-19: Just as Eve was the mother of all living (Genesis 3.20), so the whole earth is populated from the three sons of Noah. This is consistent with the statement that everyone outside the ark died, Genesis 7:21-23.

v20-21: Even in times of blessing, things go wrong. There was nothing wrong in Noah planting a vineyard. Yet drunkeness is condemned in scipture. For Noah, a truly righteous man, this is an evidence of his human frailty

v22-23: Ham is careless, and dishonours his father by drawing attention to his father's shame. Shem and Japheth are more careful and discrete, and cover his shame.

Our part is to cover man's shame, not to gloat over his frailty, nor to expose his mistakes; any judgment is God's prerogative.

v24-25: As a result, Ham's descendants, particularly the Canaanite peoples, are cursed. This verse has been abused by some who have treated Hamitic peoples (Africans) as lesser, making them slaves. We might say that this curse is predictive of what would happen. But it is not justification for one tribe to treat another as slaves.

v26-29: Shem; the Semitic peoples, especially Jews; the Lord is the God of Shem.

Japheth, Gentiles, who may dwell in the tents of Shem; salvation is of the Jews, but Gentiles may enter in.