Genesis — Chapter 9

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• No specific geography — the focus is on God's covenant with Noah and the post-flood commands for all humanity.
• The prophecy over Shem, Ham, and Japheth (vv.25-27) sets up the Table of Nations (ch.10) and the geographical spread of peoples.

Deep Dive

Setting: Noah and his family have stepped out of the ark onto a washed, empty world. Noah's first act was to build an altar, and God answered with a promise: he would never again curse the ground or strike down every living thing, even though "the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth" (8:21–22). Chapter 9 turns that promise into words spoken to Noah and his sons. God renews the blessing of creation, sets new rules for life in a violent world, and makes a covenant with all living things, sealed with the rainbow. Then the chapter turns, abruptly, to a sad story about Noah himself. The new world has a fresh start, but it has the same human heart. The chapter closes the account of Noah that began at 6:9, and it sets up the family tree of nations in chapter 10.

God's Covenant with Noah (vv1–17)

• "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (v1). These are God's words to Adam and Eve (1:28), almost word for word. Noah is like a second Adam, the father of a new humanity. The command opens and closes this speech (vv1, 7), so everything in between sits inside God's blessing.
• "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast" (v2). Something has changed. In 1:28 humans were to "have dominion" over the animals. Now the animals will fear them. The words "fear and dread" are used elsewhere of armies sweeping into a land (Deut 11:25). The peace of Eden is gone, and the relationship between people and animals is now marked by fear.
• "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you… as I gave you the green plants" (v3). In 1:29–30 God gave plants for food. Here, for the first time, God explicitly gives animals as food. Most readers think people didn't eat meat before this, though some think the permission only makes formal what was already going on. The New Testament assumes this freedom continues (Mark 7:19; 1 Tim 4:3–4).
• "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood" (v4). "Life" is nephesh, the word often translated "soul," meaning the living self. Blood stands for life, and life belongs to God. Eating meat is allowed, but life must still be honored by draining the blood. The law of Moses repeats this (Lev 17:10–14) and adds the reason: "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement" (Lev 17:11). The early church asked Gentile believers to keep this rule for the sake of fellowship with Jewish believers (Acts 15:20, 29).
• "For your lifeblood I will require a reckoning" (v5). God himself will call to account anyone, man or beast, who takes a human life. "From his fellow man," literally "from the hand of each man's brother," recalls Cain, who killed his brother (4:9–11). The violence that filled the earth before the flood (6:11) is now to be restrained.
• "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed" (v6). This is a short poem in Hebrew, built as a mirror: shophek dam ha'adam / ba'adam damo yishshaphek, "sheds / blood / of man // by man / his blood / shall be shed." The form itself shows that the punishment fits the crime. The words "by man" give human beings the task of carrying out justice. Many see here the beginning of human government, which Paul says "does not bear the sword in vain" (Rom 13:4). The phrase can also be translated "for that man," meaning in exchange for the life taken, but most versions read "by man."
• "For God made man in his own image" (v6). This is the reason given. Murder is an attack on God's image, and so on God himself. Even after the fall and the flood, every person still bears that image (James 3:9). Christians agree that this verse grounds the sacredness of human life. They differ on what it requires of governments today. Many, including Henry and Guzik, read it as a lasting basis for capital punishment for murder. Others read it as describing the justice of that time, now tempered by the cross and by Jesus' teaching on mercy (Matt 5:38–39), and they argue for other ways of protecting life. Both views take the verse's high view of human life seriously.
• "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature" (vv9–10). God promised this covenant before the flood (6:18). It has some unusual features. God makes it with all humanity, not one family or nation, and with the animals and "the earth" too (v13). God makes all the promises and asks nothing in return. Theologians often call it a "covenant of preservation" or "common grace": God's promise to keep the world going, for believers and unbelievers alike, so that his plan of salvation has a stage to unfold on (Matt 5:45; Acts 14:17).
• "Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (v11). The promise is specific: no more floods to destroy all flesh. It doesn't promise there will be no final judgment. Peter says the present heavens and earth are "stored up for fire," kept until the day of judgment (2 Pet 3:6–7).
• "I have set my bow in the cloud" (v13). The Hebrew qeshet is the normal word for a warrior's bow, as in 27:3 and 48:22. The same word means "rainbow." Many scholars, and the Tyndale notes, see a picture here: the Bible elsewhere shows God as a warrior with a bow (Hab 3:9; Ps 7:12), and after the flood he hangs his bow in the sky, unstrung. It's an attractive reading, though the text itself doesn't spell it out. Whether this was the first rainbow ever is debated. Guzik thinks so. Many others think God gave a new meaning to something already familiar, as later with circumcision (17:11) and bread and wine (Luke 22:20).
• "I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant" (v16). The sign is mainly for God, not for Noah: "When the bow is seen… I will remember" (vv14–16). God binds himself to his word, as if tying a string around his own finger. Every rainbow is a promise God keeps in view. "Everlasting covenant" (berit olam) appears here for the first time in the Bible. The rainbow appears again around God's throne in the visions of Ezekiel (Ezek 1:28) and John (Rev 4:3). Isaiah uses this covenant to comfort Israel: "as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you" (Isa 54:9).
• Commentators: Henry says God allows meat so that people "may live comfortably," and he reads the blood rule partly as a safeguard so that "blood must not be looked upon as a common thing." On v6 he writes, "Wilful murder ought always to be punished with death," and "Man is a creature dear to his Creator, and therefore ought to be so to us." JFB reads the blood law as meant "to prevent these excesses of cannibal ferocity," which is a guess the text doesn't support. JFB calls v6 a statement that "a high value is attached to the life of every man, even the poorest and humblest," and says the rainbow, a "common and familiar phenomenon," was made "the pledge of peace." Guzik agrees with both on capital punishment and stresses that Scripture distinguishes murder from all killing, such as self-defense or lawful judgment. He points out that the rainbow encircles God's throne in Revelation 4, so the promise stays always before God.

Noah's Descendants (vv18–29)

• "Shem, Ham, and Japheth… from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed" (vv18–19). All the nations of chapter 10 come from these three men. Paul says God "made from one man every nation of mankind" (Acts 17:26). The words "Ham was the father of Canaan" are added here and again in v22, preparing for what follows. Israel, reading this as they prepared to enter Canaan, would understand why it matters.
• "Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard" (v20). "Man of the soil" (ish ha'adamah) recalls Adam, made from the ground (adamah) to work it (2:7, 15). Lamech had hoped Noah would bring relief from the "painful toil" of the cursed ground (5:29), and wine is a gift that "gladdens the heart of man" (Ps 104:15). Some readers take "began" to mean Noah was the first to grow grapes or make wine. The text doesn't say that.
• "He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent" (v21). This is the first mention of drunkenness in the Bible, and it falls on the most righteous man of his time. Scripture doesn't hide its heroes' sins. Noah walked with God (6:9), yet he still had the human heart of 8:21. A man who stayed faithful through the flood falls in his own tent, in a time of peace. Wine itself is a gift in Scripture. Drunkenness is condemned (Prov 23:29–35; Eph 5:18).
• "Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers" (v22). The text is brief and has puzzled readers for centuries. Faithful interpreters give two main explanations: - Dishonor. The most common reading is that Ham looked on his father's shame and made it public, perhaps with mockery, instead of covering it. In the ancient world a son was expected to protect a drunken father. A Canaanite poem, the Tale of Aqhat, lists among a good son's duties to take his father by the hand when he is drunk. Honoring parents later became the fifth commandment (Exod 20:12). Henry and the Tyndale notes read it this way. - Something more. "Uncover the nakedness" is used in Leviticus 18 as a polite way of describing sexual sin, and "your father's nakedness" there can refer to sins involving one's mother (Lev 18:7–8). Some scholars therefore think Ham did more than look, and that the strong curse in v25 suggests a grave sin. Guzik mentions this possibility. Others answer that the text here says only that Ham "saw," and that his brothers' careful act of not seeing (v23) makes most sense if seeing was the wrong. - Guzik says the Hebrew implies Ham told his brothers "with delight." The verb (nagad) simply means "tell" or "report," and the lexicon gives no such sense. Any mockery is inferred, not stated.
• "Shem and Japheth took a garment… walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father" (v23). The verse slows down to show every careful step: the garment on both shoulders, walking backward, faces turned away, not seeing. In the garden God covered Adam and Eve's shame (3:21). Here two sons do the same for their father. "Love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pet 4:8).
• "Knew what his youngest son had done to him" (v24). Ham is listed second (5:32; 9:18), so "youngest" is a little surprising. It may simply mean "younger," or, as some suggest, it may point to Canaan, Noah's grandson, which would help explain the curse that follows. JFB thinks Canaan himself was involved. The text doesn't say.
• "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers" (v25). Noah curses Canaan, not Ham. Readers explain this in several ways. Ham sinned against his father, and he is punished through his own son. Or Canaan took part in some way. Or Noah is speaking as a prophet, foreseeing that Canaan's descendants would follow the same path, as the sins of the Canaanites listed in Leviticus 18:24–28 show. Scripture is clear elsewhere that a son is not punished for his father's sin (Ezek 18:20), so most read this as prophecy about a people, not punishment of a child. "Servant of servants" is a Hebrew way of saying "the lowest of servants." It was fulfilled when Israel took the land of Canaan and the Gibeonites became servants (Josh 9:23).
• This curse has been badly misused. For centuries some people claimed that this verse cursed Africans and justified slavery. It was called the "curse of Ham." The text gives no support for this. The curse falls on Canaan, not Ham, and Canaan's descendants were the peoples of the land of Canaan (10:15–19), not Africans. The curse was fulfilled in ancient history. The New Testament declares that in Christ there is neither slave nor free (Gal 3:28) and that every nation is made from one man (Acts 17:26). JFB, writing in 1871, connected the curse to the enslavement of Africans. That reading was wrong and should be rejected outright. Guzik rejects it plainly.
• "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem" (v26). Noah doesn't bless Shem directly. He blesses Shem's God, using the covenant name "the LORD." The greatest blessing Shem has is that the LORD is his God. "Shem" means "name," and it is through Shem's line that God will give Abram a great name (12:2) and that Israel and then the Messiah will come (11:10–26; Luke 3:36).
• "May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem" (v27). A wordplay: "enlarge" (yapht) sounds like "Japheth" (Yepheth). The lexicon gives the verb's meaning as "make wide": God will give Japheth a broad territory. Japheth's descendants in chapter 10 spread across the coastlands and the north (10:2–5). Who will "dwell in the tents of Shem"? The Hebrew can mean Japheth, who would share in Shem's blessing, or God, who would dwell with Shem. An ancient Jewish paraphrase, the Targum, reads it as God's presence living among Shem's people. Many Christians have read it as the nations, often traced from Japheth, coming to share Israel's blessings through the gospel (Eph 2:12–13; Rom 11:17).
• "All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died" (vv28–29). This ends with the same formula as chapter 5. The man named "Rest," who survived the judgment of the world, still dies. His long story ends not on the mountain or at the altar, but after a failure and a family wound.
• Commentators: Henry writes that "Noah, who had kept sober in drunken company, is now drunk in sober company." He faults Ham for telling his brothers "in a scornful deriding manner" and praises Shem and Japheth: "There is a mantle of love to be thrown over the faults of all." JFB calls Noah's drunkenness a "solitary stain," perhaps at a vintage festival, and thinks Canaan's conduct was "more offensive than that even of his father." It then reads the curse as fulfilled in the slavery of Africans and the blessing of Japheth in British rule in India, readings shaped by its own time that should be set aside. Guzik reads the curse as prophecy rather than punishment of an innocent grandson, citing Ezekiel 18, and connects it with Israel's conquest of Canaan under Joshua. He also warns from Noah's fall that a strong past doesn't protect anyone from sin today.

Pointing to Christ

The covenant with Noah promises a world held steady by God's patience, and the blood laws of v4–6 teach that life belongs to God and that blood is precious. Both point forward. God's patience was keeping the world for the day his Son would shed his own blood, "the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mark 14:24). And Noah's story shows why that was needed: even the best of men, after the greatest deliverance, fell into shame. Shem and Japheth covered their father's nakedness by walking backward. Christ covers his people's shame by facing it fully and bearing it on the cross (Heb 12:2). The rainbow around God's throne (Rev 4:3) stands over a promise kept in him: the God of Shem has come to "dwell" among us (John 1:14), and the nations are welcomed into his tents.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers the Noahic covenant, the rainbow, Noah's failure, and the prophecy over the three sons.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• BibleProject: bibleproject.com On the whole book: how its opening chapters work as literature and how they set up everything that follows.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Genesis -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• Every Person Bears God's Image (v.6) — Capital punishment for murder is grounded in the fact that humans are made in God's image, not merely in their usefulness or status. How does the truth that every person carries God's image shape the way you treat people you'd rather dismiss?
• The Rainbow as a Preached Promise (v.13) — God sets the rainbow as a visible, ongoing sign of His covenant faithfulness never to flood the whole earth again. Do you notice the rainbow as a reminder of God's promise-keeping character, or just as weather?
• Even the Righteous Can Fall (vv.20-21) — Noah, the man who walked with God through the flood, gets drunk and ends up shamed in his own tent. Are you guarding against complacency, knowing that past faithfulness doesn't guarantee future obedience?
• Covering Shame Instead of Exposing It (v.23) — Shem and Japheth walk in backward and cover their father rather than exposing his failure like Ham did. When someone you respect fails, is your instinct to expose them or to cover them with grace?
• A Prophecy of Wider Blessing (v.27) — Noah's blessing over Japheth foreshadows Gentiles being welcomed into the spiritual blessings first given through Shem's line. If you're a Gentile believer, do you recognize yourself as living inside that ancient prophecy?