The Noahic Covenant
Genesis 6-9
Increasing Corruption on Earth
6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sonsof God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any theychose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God camein to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old,the men of renown.
5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of thethoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on theearth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created fromthe face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that Ihave made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Noah and the Flood
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noahwalked with God. 10 And 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. 12 And God saw theearth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said toNoah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them.Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in theark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubitabove, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, Iwill bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall comeinto the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of allflesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male andfemale. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of everycreeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep themalive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for youand for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
7 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that youare righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, themale and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairsof the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all theearth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thingthat I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the LORD hadcommanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and hissons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Ofclean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on theground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon 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 wereopened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and hissons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them enteredthe ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, andevery creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind,every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there wasthe breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God hadcommanded him. And the LORD shut him in.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rosehigh above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated onthe face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountainsunder the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering themfifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarmingcreatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils wasthe breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man andanimals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noahwas left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
The Flood Subsides
8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deepand the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the watersreceded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventhmonth, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And thewaters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, thetops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth araven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove fromhim, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to sether foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. Sohe put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days,and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, andbehold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided fromthe earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to himanymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters weredried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face ofthe ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth haddried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and yoursons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds andanimals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and befruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wiveswith him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, wentout by families from the ark.
God’s Covenant with Noah
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every cleanbird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORDsaid in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart isevil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While theearth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
9 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every birdof the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your handthey are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the greenplants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for yourlifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man Iwill require a reckoning for the life of man.
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.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you andyour offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, andevery beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 Iestablish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, andnever again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenantthat I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 Ihave set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When Ibring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that isbetween me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become aflood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlastingcovenant 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.”
Noah’s Descendants
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the fatherof Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth weredispersed.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and becamedrunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his fatherand told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both theirshoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turnedbackward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knewwhat his youngest son had done to him, 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.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
(ESV)