Bible chapter guide

Genesis 9

God blesses Noah and his sons, gives them all living things for food, forbids the shedding of human blood, and makes a covenant with every living creature never to flood the earth again, with the rainbow as its sign. Noah's drunkenness ends in a curse on Canaan.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

God blesses Noah and his sons with the words he spoke over the first humans, to be fruitful and fill the earth, and now gives them animals as well as plants for food, but not meat with its lifeblood in it. Human life is guarded because man is made in God's image: whoever sheds human blood will answer for it. God then makes a covenant with Noah, his descendants and every living creature never again to destroy the earth by a flood, and sets the rainbow in the cloud as its sign. Later Noah plants a vineyard and lies drunk and uncovered in his tent; Ham sees him and tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth cover him walking backwards, and Noah curses Canaan, Ham's son, and blesses Shem and Japheth before he dies at nine hundred and fifty.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Noah's Ark lab has one moment for this chapter, its last: Noah's altar, with the family outside the ark and the rainbow overhead. The scene and the landscape are illustration; the covenant card quotes the text. The rest of the chapter lies in other labs. The Biblical Family Tree has Noah and his sons, among them Ham, whose line through Canaan the curse concerns. Life Phases of Old Testament Heroes sets Noah's 350 years after the flood on a timeline; it places the vineyard at about his 650th year, a guess the text neither supports nor rules out. The Hebrew Word Explorer opens bərît, the word for covenant.

Questions people ask

What does the rainbow mean in Genesis 9?

It is the sign of God's covenant never again to destroy all flesh by a flood (9:12–17). The covenant is made with Noah's family and with every living creature that came out of the ark, birds and cattle included. The text also says the bow is a reminder for God himself: "I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant" (9:16).

Textually stated

Was this the first rainbow ever seen?

The text does not say. Some read 'I do set my bow in the cloud' as something new after the flood; others take it that rainbows had always appeared and God now gave one a meaning, as he later did with bread and water. The lab marks the first-rainbow idea as speculative.

Speculative

Why did Noah curse Canaan and not Ham?

The text does not explain. It calls Ham 'the father of Canaan' twice before the curse, and readers have suggested that Canaan was somehow involved, that Ham was punished through his son, or that the story looks ahead to Israel and the Canaanites in the land. The curse names Canaan only; its later use to justify slavery of Africans has no basis in the text.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

Trace the Bible family tree from Adam to Jesus

People in this chapter

Noah Shem Ham Japheth

Also in this chapter

Dies, 350 years after the flood God's covenant and the rainbow Plants a vineyard and lies drunk The rainbow covenant bərît בְּרִית

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
The rainbow is the sign of God's covenant never again to destroy all flesh by a flood.
Stated directly in the text.
Plausible
Noah, ages 601–950: Three hundred fifty years of new beginning
Noah steps out to an altar, a blessing and a covenant, and his family fills the earth again. The same season holds the vineyard and his shame (Gen 9:20–21). Genesis does not tidy its heroes: a fruitful season can still contain failure, and the covenant rests…
Speculative
Noah was about 650: Plants a vineyard and lies drunk.
Only placed after the flood. Canaan, born after the flood (Gen 10:1, 6), is already part of the story.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)