1 And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said, Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full.
2 And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands.
3 Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things.
4 But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food.
5 And for your blood, which is your life, will I take payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man.
6 Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken; because God made man in his image.
7 And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on the earth and become great in number.
8 And God said to Noah and to his sons,
9 Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your seed after you,
10 And with every living thing with you, all birds and cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark with you.
11 And I will make my agreement with you; never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the waters come over all the earth for its destruction.
12 And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I make between me and you and every living thing with you, for all future generations:
13 I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the agreement between me and the earth.
14 And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud,
15 And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and you and every living thing; and never again will there be a great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh.
16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and every living thing on the earth.
17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth.
18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the earth was peopled.
20 In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a vine-garden.
21 And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink; and he was uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it over their father so that they might not see him unclothed.
24 And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said,
25 Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his brothers.
26 And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.
28 And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years after the great flow of waters;
29 all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and he came to his end.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 9
Commentary on Genesis 9 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 9
Ge 9:1-7. Covenant.
1. And God blessed Noah—Here is republished the law of nature that was announced to Adam, consisting as it originally did of several parts.
Be fruitful, &c.—The first part relates to the transmission of life, the original blessing being reannounced in the very same words in which it had been promised at first [Ge 1:28].
2. And the fear of you and the dread of you—The second part re-establishes man's dominion over the inferior animals; it was now founded not as at first in love and kindness, but in terror; this dread of man prevails among all the stronger as well as the weaker members of the animal tribes and keeps away from his haunts all but those employed in his service.
3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you—The third part concerns the means of sustaining life; man was for the first time, it would seem, allowed the use of animal food, but the grant was accompanied with one restriction.
4. But flesh … the blood … shall ye not eat—The sole intention of this prohibition was to prevent these excesses of cannibal ferocity in eating flesh of living animals, to which men in the earlier ages of the world were liable.
5. surely your blood of your lives will I require—The fourth part establishes a new power for protecting life—the institution of the civil magistrate (Ro 13:4), armed with public and official authority to repress the commission of violence and crime. Such a power had not previously existed in patriarchal society.
6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood … for in the image of God made he man—It is true that image has been injured by the fall, but it is not lost. In this view, a high value is attached to the life of every man, even the poorest and humblest, and an awful criminality is involved in the destruction of it.
Ge 9:8-29. Rainbow.
13. I do set my bow in the cloud—set, that is, constitute or appoint. This common and familiar phenomenon being made the pledge of peace, its appearance when showers began to fall would be welcomed with the liveliest feelings of joy.
20. And Noah … planted a vineyard—Noah had been probably bred to the culture of the soil, and resumed that employment on leaving the ark.
21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken—perhaps at the festivities of the vintage season. This solitary stain on the character of so eminently pious a man must, it is believed, have been the result of age or inadvertency.
24. This incident could scarcely have happened till twenty years after the flood; for Canaan, whose conduct was more offensive than that even of his father, was not born till after that event. It is probable that there is a long interval included between these verses and that this prophecy, like that of Jacob on his sons, was not uttered till near the close of Noah's life when the prophetic spirit came upon him; this presumption is strengthened by the mention of his death immediately after.
25. Cursed be Canaan—This doom has been fulfilled in the destruction of the Canaanites—in the degradation of Egypt and the slavery of the Africans, the descendants of Ham.
26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem—rather, "Blessed of Jehovah, my God, be Shem,"—an intimation that the descendants of Shem should be peculiarly honored in the service of the true God, His Church being for ages established among them (the Jews), and of them, concerning the flesh, Christ came. They got possession of Canaan, the people of that land being made their "servants" either by conquest, or, like the Gibeonites, by submission [Jos 9:25].
27. God shall enlarge Japheth—pointing to a vast increase in posterity and possessions. Accordingly his descendants have been the most active and enterprising, spread over the best and largest portion of the world, all Europe and a considerable part of Asia.
he shall dwell in the tents of Shem—a prophecy being fulfilled at the present day, as in India British Government is established and the Anglo-Saxons being in the ascendancy from Europe to India, from India over the American continent. What a wonderful prophecy in a few verses (Isa 46:10; 1Pe 1:25)!