Genesis · Pentateuch (Law)

Genesis 9

God blesses Noah, makes His covenant with the rainbow as its sign, and Noah’s sons are named as the fathers of the nations.

c. 2350 BC and afterKey verses Genesis 9:1, 9:6, 9:11-13, 9:25-27Read Genesis 9 in the ESVopens BibleGateway
Haran, about 1,250 ftAbram’s road from Haran into Canaan (Genesis 12:4-6), about 420 milesShechem, about 1,900 ft

9:13

“I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Genesis 9:13, ESV

The chapter at a glance

  1. 1–7Blessing renewed, life protectedMan in God’s image must not be killed
  2. 8–17The covenant and the bowGod binds Himself never again to flood the earth
  3. 18–19The sons of NoahFrom these three the whole earth is peopled
  4. 20–27Noah’s shame and the curse on CanaanSin survives the flood; blessing and curse divide the lines
  5. 28–29Noah’s deathAnd he died

The chapter in brief

God blesses Noah and his sons and tells them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of man will fall on the animals, and every moving thing will be food, as the green plants were, but they must not eat flesh with its life, its blood. God will require a reckoning for human life from beast and from man, because “God made man in his own image.” Then God establishes His covenant with Noah, his offspring, and every living creature: never again will all flesh be cut off by a flood. The sign is His bow in the cloud; when it appears, God will remember His everlasting covenant. Afterward Noah plants a vineyard, drinks wine, becomes drunk, and lies uncovered in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, sees his father’s nakedness and tells his brothers; Shem and Japheth walk in backward with a garment and cover him without looking. When Noah wakes, he curses Canaan, to be a servant of servants to his brothers, blesses the LORD, the God of Shem, and prays that God will enlarge Japheth and that he will dwell in the tents of Shem. Noah lives 350 years after the flood and dies at 950.

God starts the world again with the blessing of creation, now in a world where sin remains. He protects human life because every person bears His image, and He binds Himself by covenant to all creation, giving a sign that hangs in the sky after every storm. Then the hero of the flood falls, and the chapter shows that a new world still needs a new heart. The blessing on Shem, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem,” marks the line through which the promised offspring will come, through Abraham to Christ. The curse on Canaan falls on one line, not a race, and in Christ, who became “a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), the blessing reaches every nation.

Points for discussion

vv. 1–7

The image and the blood

God repeats the creation blessing, with changes for a fallen world. The animals will now fear man, and meat is given for food, but not with its blood, because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). Life belongs to God. Then God protects human life: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The reason is the image of God, which every person still bears after the fall. Christians differ on what verse 6 requires today. Some read it as God’s lasting warrant for the death penalty for murder, carried out by lawful government (Romans 13:4). Others read it as a statement of the gravity of murder, or as a principle of justice whose form is left to each nation, and some believe the state should not take life. All agree on what the verse plainly teaches: human life is sacred because it bears God’s image, and murder is an attack on God’s own likeness. It gives no warrant at all for private revenge (Romans 12:19), and any punishment must be just and certain of guilt (Deuteronomy 19:15).

For discussion

God protected Cain’s life after a murder (4:15), and here He requires the life of a murderer. How do these two fit in the story of Genesis? Read Romans 13:1-4 and Romans 12:17-21 together.

vv. 8–17

The bow in the cloud

This covenant is made with Noah, his offspring, and “every living creature,” and it asks nothing of them. God alone binds Himself: never again a flood to destroy the earth. The sign is a bow, the same Hebrew word as a warrior’s bow. Many readers see a weapon hung up in the sky, pointed away from the earth. God says the bow is for His own remembering: “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant” (v. 16). Our confidence rests not on our memory of God but on His memory of us. John sees a rainbow around the throne of God (Revelation 4:3). This covenant keeps the world standing for the sake of the greater covenant to come, sealed in Christ’s blood.

vv. 20–23

Noah’s shame

The man who walked with God, who built the ark and offered the sacrifice, gets drunk and lies uncovered in his tent. Scripture records it without approving it. Even the best of men needs a better Savior. What exactly Ham did is debated. The plain reading is that he looked on his father’s shame and spread it, mocking where he should have covered. Some see more, since “uncover the nakedness of” is used in Leviticus 18 of sexual sin, but the text here says only that he “saw” and “told.” Shem and Japheth answer with a garment and their faces turned away. A word of care belongs here: covering a parent’s shame with honor is not the same as hiding a parent’s harm. This passage never asks anyone to keep silent about abuse or a crime, and those go to the proper authorities.

vv. 24–27

The curse on Canaan

Noah curses not Ham but Ham’s son Canaan: “a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” This verse was used for centuries to justify the enslavement of Africans and racism against them, under the name “the curse of Ham,” and that use must be named plainly as a grave sin. It never had any warrant. The curse names Canaan alone, not Ham’s other sons, Cush, Egypt, and Put (10:6). The Canaanites lived in the land Israel would later receive (10:15-19), not in Africa. Noah’s words are best read as a prophecy of judgment on one people’s coming wickedness, not a command to anyone to enslave anyone. And all peoples come “from one man” (Acts 17:26), redeemed alike by the One who bore the curse (Galatians 3:13). The blessings point the other way, toward grace. “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem”: Shem is blessed by having the LORD as his God, and his line leads to Abraham and to Christ. Japheth will “dwell in the tents of Shem,” which many readers see fulfilled as the nations are brought into the blessing promised through Shem’s line (Ephesians 2:12-13; Galatians 3:8).

Threads across the chapter

  • Creation renewed. Be fruitful and multiply (vv. 1, 7), dominion over the creatures (v. 2), and the image of God (v. 6) carry Genesis 1 into a fallen world.

  • Life and blood. Blood is life and belongs to God (vv. 4-6), and the life of every creature is under His covenant (vv. 10-17).

  • God’s remembering. The bow is a sign for God to remember (vv. 15-16), as He remembered Noah in 8:1.

  • Seeing and covering. Ham sees and tells (v. 22); Shem and Japheth cover and do not see (v. 23).

Key words

9:6
צֶלֶם tselem“Image”; the image of God still borne after the fall, the ground of the sanctity of life
9:9–17
בְּרִית berit“Covenant”; repeated seven times in verses 9-17, a covenant God alone binds Himself to keep
9:13
קֶשֶׁת qeshet“Bow”; the ordinary word for a warrior’s bow, set in the cloud as a sign

Cross-references

Questions for your group

  1. 1

    How does the blessing of verses 1-7 both repeat Genesis 1 and show that the world has changed?

  2. 2

    Why does God ground the protection of human life in His image, and what does that mean for how we treat every person?

  3. 3

    The rainbow is a sign for God to remember. How does it change our prayers to know that our security rests on His memory, not ours?

  4. 4

    What does Noah’s fall after the flood teach about the limits of even the best human leaders?

  5. 5

    How should Christians answer the long misuse of verse 25 to defend slavery and racism, and what does the gospel say instead?

My notes