NOAH 
                        and the   
                FLOOD                              

THE STORY

NOAH'S STORY IN THE BIBLE
 
EXTRA WEBSITES

                      
        IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!

SCROLL DOWN FOR PAINTINGS

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BUILDING THE ARK    'and God said: Make yourself an Ark....'

(Left) The man who painted 'The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark': Jan Bruegel the Elder and his family, by Rubens

Title:  'The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark'

Artist:  Jan Brueghel the Elder

Year:  1613

Incident shown:  The ark is not shown, but must be in the vicinity somewhere, since the animals are assembling at Noah's command. He herds them as they mingle peacefully together.

Bible reference:  Genesis 6-7

Comment:  Brueghel manages to convey the plethora of animals and birds Noah had to collect. As if aware of their special status as saviors of their species, they mingle peacefully together. The birds at least seem to be arriving of their own volition, flocking in from afar. 

Jan Brueghel the Elder has painted the sky sunny and clear: there is no hint of what is to come. It is an idyllic scene of abundant Nature, with Noah's family picnicking on the banks of the stream. But the clock is ticking....

Artist:  Franzosischer Meister 'The French Master'

Year:   circa 1675

Incident shown:  Noah warns the people about the impending disaster, but they listen to him with amused skepticism. Undeterred, he rallies the troops to keep on building, while behind him the storm clouds begin to gather.

Bible reference:  Genesis 6

Comment:  On the left side, there is lassitude, as the populace listens with amusement to Noah's warnings. But the right side of the painting is a hive of activity, as the sons of Noah work frantically to complete the ark before the clouds above them darken any more. The French Master has captured the urgency of the moment - and something of the futility of warning people about the consequences of their actions.

The Franzosischer Meister has placed an Arcadian, or perhaps medieval town behind Noah. Go to 
BIBLE ARCHITECTURE: HOUSING to see reconstructions of the sort of town Noah would really have lived in.

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William Bell Scott painted a number of religious paintings. 'The Rending of the Veil', painted three years after 'The Eve of the Deluge', shows the moment of Jesus' death, when the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom.

Title:  'The Eve of the Deluge'

Artist:  William Bell Scott (1811-1890)

Year:   1865

Incident shown:  The rich, wicked inhabitants of the earth look on with amusement as Noah labors to complete the ark. Their luxury and indolence are equated with evil - a common attitude of the Victorian era.

Bible reference:  Genesis 6

Comment:  These are the people the Bible describes in the words: '...the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only towards evil.' The dissipated people on this balcony cannot rouse themselves to action. They are enjoying the evening sunlight. But on the horizon a great cloud begins to form, gathering volume and strength.

Note: Noah was decidedly counter-cultural in his worship of a single god, placing himself at odds with the established religions of the ancient world. See BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ZIGGURATS for photographs and reconstructions of the ziggurats at Ur, where the story of the Flood may have originated. 

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GOING INTO THE ARK    'two by two, they went into the Ark....'

Title: 'Story of Noah'

Artist:  Lorenzo Ghiberti 1378 - 1455

Year:  circa 1420 

Incident shown:  In the top section, Noah warns his family about the impending deluge; the animals begin moving towards him. In the bottom right, Noah and his family offer sacrifice to God on the altar they have built. In the bottom right Noah lies drunk on the floor while his sons talk in the background.

Bible reference:  Genesis 6-9

Comment:  This panel from the Gates of Paradise in Florence is a composite of the different parts of the story. Curiously, Ghiberti seems to have given prominence to the story of Noah's drunkenness - this is the part of the panel that captures the eye first. The story of the Deluge is relegated to second or even third place. Perhaps Ghibert wished to focus on the aftermath of the Flood, and what humanity would do with its second chance.

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Title:  'Noah's Ark'

Artist:  Edward Hicks

Year:   1846

Incident shown:  The animals enter two by two, and in this case the lambs and the lions are together, unconcerned by each other's presence. The ark waits to receive them, while storm clouds gather behind them.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment:  This charming naive painting shows the animals entering the ark in a mood of serene harmony. Order is the order of the day. Meanwhile chaos, in the form of the ominous storm clouds behind the ark, is approaching. Between the order of the animals and the chaos of the clouds stands the ark, waiting to receive anyone who will enter.

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Title:  Child's toy

Artist:  Unknown

Year:   18th or 19th century 

Incident shown:  A model of the ark as it might have looked if the Flood had occurred in the 18-19th century.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment:  Art comes in all forms, and this model of the ark built as instruction for a child, shows the way the stories of the Bible permeated daily life during the 19th century. Preserved at the Manchester Art Gallery, the maker of this model seemed comfortable imposing 19th century architecture onto the mythic world of Noah.

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THE FLOOD    'the windows of the heavens opened....'

Title:  'The Deluge'

Artist:  Francis Danby (1793-1861)

Year:   1840

Incident shown:  The overpowering fury of the storm washes hapless humanity away from the rock they cling to. Earth and sky are full of water.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment:  Danby specialized in paintings with epic subjects - this one is typical. Water dominates the landscape, and humans are dwarfed by it. In the background, under a single shaft of moonlight, is the ark. It is the only thing that seems calm. The waters swirl, dragging animals and people as they desperately try to cling to the mountain peak, now almost overwhelmed. 

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Title:  'Aquae diluvii super terram'

Artist:  Salvador Dali

Year:   1964

Incident shown:  The Flood itself dominates this painting; behind it, however, the light surrounding the ark and the dove draw the viewer's eye.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment:  This terrifying image of a monstrous floor has poignant significance. Dali painted it after the 1962 flash flood in Barcelona, which killed nearly a thousand people in his home country. The horror of mud and destruction is captured in the black menacing central form, though hope too is expressed in the ark and the dove behind.

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Title:  'The Flood'

Artist:  Norman Adams RA (1927-2005)

Year:  1970's 

Incident shown: Massive storm clouds in the form of water flasks gather over the earth, ready to spill their contents.

Bible reference: Genesis 7

Comment: In 1967 Adams was commissioned by the Oxford University Press to illustrate parts of the Old Testament. This is one of the paintings in that series. He had produced scenery for the Royal Ballet at Covent Gardens, and 'The Flood' has something of the drama and scale of a stage set. Adams' imaginative use of water flasks as storm clouds adds an extra dimension, since it suggests that the water will pour out in volume, rather than fall in rain.

For additional information on Adams, probably the most significant British religious painter of his generation, see http://normanadamsra.co.uk
For his extraordinary paintings of the Stations of the Cross in St Mary's Church in Manchester, see http://hiddengem.catholicfaith.co.uk/album2/index.html 

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SAFE IN THE ARK    'and the Lord shut him in....'

Artist:  Illustrator Petrus Comestors Bible Historials France

Year:  1372

Incident shown:  Noah and his family are inside the ark, safe from the swirling waters around them. God has locked them in, and the ladder falls away from the entrance.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment: This beautiful manuscript illustration shows the anxious faces not only of the humans inside the ark, but the birds and animals as well. Noah, wearing a medieval cap, faces his wife, also in medieval headdress. Their sons stand close to each wife, supporting each other in this terrifying situation. Notice that the ark is in the shape of a shell: it holds the seed of a new humanity, a new beginning for the earth.

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Artist:  stained glass Master, Marienkirche, Germany

Year:  late 14th century

Incident shown:  Noah (at left), his wife (bottom left) and family shelter in the safety of the neatly tile-roofed ark, while the waters foam beneath them.

Bible reference:  Genesis 7

Comment:  This stained glass window originally formed part of the Marienkirche, but was transferred from Germany to the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg during World War II. It is primitive in design, but effective nevertheless. Each face is different, individual - but all are somber. They seem uncertain that their little ark will survive the cataclysm outside.

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Artist:   Sir John Everett Millais

Year:  1851

Incident shown:  Inside the art Noah's family shelters - including the young wives of his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. These are two of the young wives, fondling one of the young doves that Noah has collected.

Bible reference:  Genesis 8

Comment:  The rain has stopped and the Flood is beginning to subside. But is it safe yet to leave the ark? Noah sends out a raven. It cannot find a tree in which to roost. Noah waits, then sends out a dove. It returns, unable to find a footing. Again Noah waits, then sends out the dove, hoping it will find a resting place. It returns with an olive twig in its beak. Noah then knows that trees are appearing above the water. Millais has shown this moment. The two young women fondle the dove, now a signal of hope for them all.

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Artist:  Frank Wesley

Year:  1980's 

Incident shown:  Noah opens a hatch in the side of the ark and releases the dove, hoping it will give him some sign that the waters have receded.

Bible reference:  Genesis 8

Comment:  The themes and stories of Christianity have universal appeal. Here is an Indian interpretation of the story of Noah - note the design of the ark, based on Indian boats. The dove leaving Noah's hand seems almost an extension of Noah himself; both are straining upwards out of the darkness of the ark interior.

See BIBLE TOP TEN: NOAH for Noah as a hero, a good man in a wicked world.

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LEAVING THE ARK    'Then Noah went out....'

Title:  'The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge'

Artist:  Thomas Cole

Year:  1829

Incident shown:  The deluge has ceased, the waters are receding, and a new dawn opens up for the Earth.

Bible reference:  Genesis 8

Comment: The most startling quality of this painting is the clarity of light . It is as if the whole world has been washed clean of every tarnish, and now lies ready for a new dawn. Certainly wreckage is strewn in the forefront of the painting, and the ground is still awash with the receding floodwater, but light coming from some point at the right of the picture seems to announce the new world that God is offering Noah. Cole seems to suggest that this is the scene that greeted Noah when he removed the covering from the door of the ark.

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BUILDING THE ALTAR    'Then Noah built an altar to the Lord....'

Title:  'The Sacrifice of Noah'

Artist:  Michelangelo

Year:  1508-12

Incident shown:  The first thing that Noah did when he and his family left the ark was to build an altar and offer sacrifice to God, in thanks for their deliverance.

Bible reference:  Genesis 8:20

Comment:  Noah and his family heap up the sacrificial flames as they prepare to make an offering of thanksgiving to God. Michelangelo has represented each member of the family here - none are omitted. Notice the detail of the slaughtered animals, and of the son with muscles straining under the load of firewood.

For a reconstruction of a sacrificial altar from biblical times, see the Beersheba altar at 
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ANCIENT RELIGIONS.

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Title: 'The Sacrifice of Noah'

Artist:  Jacopo Bassano (c.1515-1592)

Year:  circa 1574

Incident shown:  The ground is strewn with wreckage, but Noah and his family build an altar to God in thanksgiving for their safe passage through the disaster of the Flood, then set to at their task of rebuilding.

Bible reference: Genesis 8:20

Comment: The wreckage caused by the floodwaters is all too evident in the painting by Bassano. He concentrates on the task that Noah and his family face: of rebuilding a home and beginning all over again. The ground is strewn with their possessions, and the men have already set to in an attempt to provide shelter. The women do what women always do in a bad situation: get a meal going. Only the animals look nonplussed, dazed. In the background, removed from this hive of activity, Noah prays to God in thanks for the deliverance of his family.

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Title:  'Noah's Ark'

Artist:  unknown Italian artist

Year:  Late 16th century

Incident shown:  Noah raises his hands in a prayer of thanksgiving to God. The ark has come to rest on firm ground at last.

Bible reference: Genesis 8:20

Comment:  This miniature agate carving was originally from the collection of the Duke d'Orleans. It was a devotional object for personal prayer, and presumably the person who carried it would be inspired by Noah's prayerful attitude to thank God as Noah had done for deliverance and safety. 

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Title:  'Noah's Altar'

Artist:  Antonio Carracci

Year:  not known

Incident shown:  The flames of the sacrificial altar rise up, so that 'the Lord smelled the pleasing odor'. Noah and his family give thanks to God, who promises never again to destroy the earth with water.

Bible reference: Genesis 8:20

Comment: Notice the ark to the right of the painting, behind Noah. It is perched rather precariously on the peak of Mount Ararat. Notice too that most of the family have their backs turned towards it, and are focusing instead of the altar of thanksgiving. They must turn away from the past and focus instead on the future, and on worship of the God who saved them.

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THE DRUNKEN NOAH    'He drank some of the wine....'

Artist:  unknown stained glass artist

Year:  late 14th century

Incident shown:  Noah, the first tiller of the soil, has planted grape vines, harvested them and made them into wine. But he has drunk too much and is now incapacitated. One son, Ham has seen him in this state and reported it to his brothers. They seem to debate what they should do.

Bible reference:  Genesis 9

Comment:  This surprisingly graphic portrayal of Noah's nakedness was presumably part of a window in a church. Noah holds his head - his glum expressions is a signal he is already feeling the aftereffects of too much wine. His two sons carefully avoid looking at his exposed genitals. They, unlike their brother Ham, respect their father even when his conduct does not deserve it.

Note: The Bible presents Noah as the first farmer - see
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: AGRICULTURE for pictures and information on farming in the ancient world.

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Title:  'The Drunken Noah'

Artist:  Giovanni Bellini

Year:  1500-1515

Incident shown:  Noah has fallen drunkenly to the floor, and Ham is laughing - not just at his father's inebriation,  but at his nakedness. 

Bible reference:  Genesis 9

Comment:  The laughter of Ham denoted a lack of respect, and in the hierarchical tribal system this was a serious flouting of protocol. Shem and Japheth, on the other hand, both avert their eyes from Noah's nakedness. Noah seems oblivious to it all, and his body is bathed in a curious golden glow, perhaps denoting the oblivion of drunken sleep. The grapes and cup have fallen to the floor.

At the beginning of his career, Giovanni Bellini was influenced by Mantegna (his brother-in-law). In his earlier religious studies are found the hard clarity, the stiff draperies and severity of drawing that characterise the Paduan school. But later in his career, in Venice, he became more romantic, his painting richer in color, softer and more technically skilled - as in 'The Drunken Noah'.

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Title:  'The Drunkenness of Noah'

Artist:  Michelangelo Buonarroti

Year:  1509

Incident shown:  Two of the brothers, Shem and Japheth, avert their eyes from their father's naked body, while one of them attempts to cover Noah with a piece of cloth. 

Bible reference:  Genesis 9

Comment:  This painting is part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. At the left is an image of Noah, the first tiller of the soil. But the main part of the painting shows the drunken Noah, unaware of his own nakedness. One son points this out to his brothers, who try to cover Noah. Curiously, Michelangelo has shown all of the men naked, suggesting that it is not the nakedness that is the problem, but Ham's mirth at his defenseless father's predicament.

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Artist:  Unknown Italian artist

Year:  1540's

Incident shown:  Noah falls helplessly to the ground, overcome by too much wine. One son, Ham, laughs at his father's nakedness, while the other two, Shem and Japheth, avert their eyes. They will not share in Ham's derision of his father.

Bible reference:  Genesis 9

Comment:  Again, the artist has shown all the men in this picture naked. Lack of clothes, therefore, was not the problem. It was the son's lack of respect for his father, even when his father could not be said to deserve it, that was the pivotal offense calling forth God's punishment. Ham, who laughed, would be the father of the Canaanites, despised enemies of the Hebrew people.

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EXTRA WEBSITES: stories, photographs, reconstructions

Noah, First Farmer: farming in ancient times - BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: AGRICULTURE

Humble man becomes Superhero!! - BIBLE PEOPLE: NOAH

Buildings in Biblical times: the real thing - BIBLE ARCHITECTURE: HOUSING

Religion as it was in Noah's part of the world - BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ZIGGURATS

Noah as one of the Top Ten Heroes of the Bible  - BIBLE TOP TEN: NOAH

Altars of sacrifice in Biblical times - BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ANCIENT RELIGIONS

NOAH'S STORY

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!

Noah was a good man in a corrupt world. He walked with God. He had a wife, three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and three daughters-in-law.

God saw the corruption and depravity of the world, and regretted creating people. But what He had created, He could destroy. Noah would be an exception. God would spare him and his family. He told Noah what He was about to do, and directed him to build an ark. In the ark he was to put pairs of all the animals and birds on the earth. 

Noah was a contrarian. Despite the jeers of the people around him, Noah built the ark, collected the animals and birds, and prepared for the worst. It came. God opened the heavens and flooded the earth. Nothing and no-one was spared. Except every living creature in the Ark. And the fish, of course.

Noah and his family, locked inside the ark, were safe. Eventually the rain stopped. A wind, the breath of God, blew over the waters and they began to recede. Noah sent out birds to see what they would do. At first they could find nowhere to perch, but then one of them, a dove, failed to come back to the ark, and Noah knew it had found a branch on which to perch. When the earth was finally dry, God told Noah to leave the ark, freeing all the animals and birds as well.

The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar of thanksgiving to God. God made Noah a promise: that He would never again destroy all living creatures, as He had just done. As a sign of His promise, He made a rainbow across the sky.

'Despite the jeering people around him, Noah built the ark, collected the animals and birds, and prepared for the worst.   
It came.' 

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Noah became the first tiller of the soil. He planted, among other things, a vineyard. When the grapes ripened he made wine, but he drank too much and became drunk. While he was drunk he threw off all his clothes and fell down, naked, on the ground. 

His son Ham came in and saw him, and went off to get his brothers, so that they could see too. But they were more respectful towards their father, and shielded their eyes while they covered him.

When Noah woke up and heard what had happened, he was angry. He cursed Ham for his lack of respect. Ham was the father of Canaan, who was the forefather of the Canaanites, traditional enemies of the Hebrew people.

NOAH'S STORY IN THE BIBLE

The Wickedness of People
Genesis 6:5-8 

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 
⁶And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 

⁷So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ ⁸But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord.

Command to build an Ark
Genesis 6:9-22 

9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹²And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. ¹³And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. ¹⁴Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 

¹⁵This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 

¹⁷For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 

¹⁹And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ²⁰Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. ²¹Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.’ 

²²Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

The Great Flood
Genesis 7:1-24

1Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. ²Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; ³and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.’ 

⁵And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. ⁷And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 

¹⁰And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

11 In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹²The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. ¹³On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark, ¹⁴they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. ¹⁵They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 

¹⁶And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; ²⁰the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 

²¹And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; ²²everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. ²⁴And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

The Flood Subsides
Genesis 8:1-19

1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; ²the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ³and the waters gradually receded from the earth. 

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 

⁸Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; ⁹but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 

¹⁰He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; ¹¹and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹²Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.

13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. ¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 

¹⁵Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ ¹⁸So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families. 

God’s Promise to Noah
Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. ²¹And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
²²As long as the earth endures,
   seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
   shall not cease.’ 

The Covenant with Noah
Genesis 9:1-17

9God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. ³Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
   by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
   God made humankind.

⁷And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ 

¹²God 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: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I 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. ¹⁶When 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.’ 

¹⁷God 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 the First Farmer
Genesis 9:18-29

18 The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.

20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 

²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said,
‘Cursed be Canaan;
   lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’
²⁶He also said,
‘Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
   and let Canaan be his slave.
²⁷May God make space for^* Japheth,
   and let him live in the tents of Shem;
   and let Canaan be his slave.’

28 After the flood Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. 

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