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Genesis 9

Genesis book home•Chapter 9 of 50•29 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Genesis 9 Overview

Genesis 9 establishes life in the world after the flood. God blesses Noah and his sons, renews the command to multiply, permits animals for food while forbidding blood, and institutes accountability for murder because man is made in God’s image. God then establishes his covenant with Noah, his descendants, and living creatures, giving the rainbow as its sign. The chapter closes with Noah’s drunkenness, Ham’s conduct, and Noah’s prophetic words concerning Canaan, Shem, and Japheth.

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Before you read Genesis 9

Coming from

Genesis 8 ends with Noah’s altar and God’s commitment to the continuation of earth’s seasons.

In this chapter

The post-flood world receives a renewed human commission, stronger protections around human life, and a universal covenant sign—yet sin remains present within Noah’s own family.

Leads into

Genesis 10 traces the nations descending from Noah’s sons before Genesis 11 explains Babel and narrows the genealogy toward Abram.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Humanity is again told to be fruitful and multiply.

Truth 2

Human life is protected because mankind remains made in God’s image.

Truth 3

The rainbow covenant includes Noah, descendants, and living creatures.

Truth 4

God promises not to destroy all flesh again by flood.

Truth 5

The family episode shows that the flood did not remove sin from the human heart.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Genesis 1 provides the earlier blessing and image-of-God foundation.

Connection 2

Isaiah 54:9 refers to “the waters of Noah” in covenant assurance.

Connection 3

Romans 13 develops governmental authority to punish wrongdoing, though Genesis 9 is earlier and foundational.

Connection 4

Genesis 10–11 shows how Noah’s descendants spread into nations.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The permission to eat animals is explicit here, with the prohibition concerning blood.

Keep this clear 2

The death penalty for murder is grounded in the image of God, not human worth defined by society.

Keep this clear 3

Noah’s curse is specifically pronounced on Canaan, not on an alleged racial group; racist uses of this passage are false.

Keep this clear 4

The text does not excuse Noah’s drunkenness simply because Noah is otherwise a man of faith.

Read Genesis 9 watching for…Explore deeper

What changes and what remains from Genesis 1.

Every party included in the covenant.

The repeated wording “never again” concerning flood destruction.

The image-of-God basis for human life.

The exact person named in Noah’s curse.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7God blesses Noah and gives commands 8-17God gives the covenant sign of the bow 18-23Noah's vineyard and Ham's sin 24-29Noah speaks of his sons and dies

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

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Genesis 9:21

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