Genesis 9. Noah’s Covenant

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

• Echoes Genesis 1:26

 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. 

• Genesis 9 parallels Genesis 1-2 but introduces several changes. Adam and Eve were given plants for food (Genesis 1:29), whereas Noah is told, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you… as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:3).
• Also, before the Flood humans were to rule over the animals, but after the Flood God adds that “the fear and dread of you shall be upon every beast” (Genesis 9:2). Man and animal now have a different relationship.

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

• Why blood? Leviticus 17:11 ”… the life of the flesh is in the 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.

• From every beast I will require it: even animals will pay the price for bloodshed. See Exodus 21:28

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, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

• Notice how God repeats this

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.”

• 2 Peter 3:6-7 shows that the earth will be stored up for fire, not flood: and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. ⁷ But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

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. 

• My bow: the Hebrew here means bow as weapon קֶשֶׁת (qeshet), almost as if God set away His weapon of flooding the earth. Also rainbows are shaped in a way where the bow would be pointing it’s “arrow” away from 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.

• The rainbow is the first covenantal sign (unless there was one with Adam). The Noahic Covenant is also unique because it is made with every living creature including humans, not just one family or nation (like Israel’s or Abraham’s).

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.”

• The word for covenant בְּרִית (berit) appears seven (!) times in this section (Genesis 9:8-17).

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.

²⁰ Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 

• Was there drunkeness before the flood? Did Noah know what drinking too much wine would do to his body?

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. 

• If you want to dig deeper into Ham’s sin, I highly recommend BibleProject’s classroom session: https://bibleproject.com/classroom/noah-to-abraham/sessions/23. They explore several major interpretations, including:
• Voyeurism (seeing and dishonoring Noah’s nakedness)
  • The verses say he “saw the nakedness” but this phrase has been used to refer to sexual sin (Leviticus 18:6, 20:17)
• Sexual abuse (rape) 
• Maternal sexual relations (the view BibleProject finds most convincing), where Ham has sexual relations with Noah’s wife while Noah is intoxicated, an act intended to shame Noah and undermine his authority.
  • This fits a recurring biblical pattern in which a son attempts to take authority by sleeping with his father’s wife (Reuben in Genesis 35:22, Absalom in 2 Samuel 16:21-22, and Adonijah’s request for Abishag in 1 Kings 2). They also observe parallels with Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19).

²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 

• This implies it might be more than just Ham seeing his father naked.

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,
    and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
    and let Canaan be his servant.”

• Canaan is cursed, Japeth is blessed, but for Shem: Noah blesses the Lord. Remember that…
  • Canaan becomes the nation later judged by Israel.
  • Shem becomes the covenant line through Abraham and the Messiah.
  • Japheth receives expansion and “shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” Some people say it could be foreshadowing the inclusion of the Gentiles.

• There is always the question of why Canaan is cursed compared to Ham (perhaps he was involved or perhaps it shows how the sins of one can have an effect on their offspring)

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