Genesis 9

Genesis 9:1

It all begins with God An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Genesis www.easyenglish.info Marie Wetherill and Keith Simons This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

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Chapter 9 v1 And God *blessed Noah and his sons. And God said this to them. ‘Have very many children and *descendants. And live everywhere on the earth. v2 Every *creature that lives will be afraid of you. That includes every animal on the earth. It includes every bird that flies in the air. It includes all *creatures that crawl on the ground. And it includes the fish in the sea. I have given everything to you. v3 Every thing that lives shall be food for you. That is, every thing that also moves. I gave the green plants to you for food. Now I give everything to you.’

v4 However, you must not eat meat that still has its life in it. That is, it still has its blood in it. v5 When somebody kills someone, there must be punishment. Someone will kill any animal that kills a person. Someone will kill any person that kills another person. Every person that kills his brother will die.

v6 If someone kills a person, then people should kill the killer. That is because God made man like himself.

v7 And I say this to you. Have large families and have many *descendants. Spread over the earth and live everywhere on it.

v8 Then God said this to Noah. And God said it to Noah’s sons, who were with Noah. v9 ’Look! I am *confirming my *covenant with you. And it is also a *covenant with your *descendants, who will live after you. v10 And it is a *covenant with every *creature that is with you. That is, every *creature that lives on the earth. That includes birds, *cattle and wild animals. It includes everything that came out of the *ark. v11 I am *confirming my *covenant with you. Never again will I send the waters of a flood to completely destroy everything. I will never again kill all that is alive. Never again will I send a flood to destroy the earth.’

v12 And God said, ‘This is the thing that will especially remind you about the *covenant. I have made that *covenant between me and you. And it is also between me and every *creature with you. That is, every *creature that lives. The *covenant will be for always. v13 I put my rainbow in the cloud. The rainbow shall be something that especially reminds you about the *covenant.

That is, the *covenant between me and the earth. v14 I will bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow will appear in the clouds. v15 Then I will remember my *covenant, which is between me and you. And it is between me and every *creature from all kinds. That is, every *creature that lives. Never again will I send enough water to kill all *creatures. v16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will look at it. I will remember the *covenant that I, God, have made with every *creature. That means every *creature that lives upon earth, from all kinds.

That *covenant will last for always.’

v17 God said to Noah, ‘This thing will especially remind you about the *covenant. I have made that *covenant between me and all *creatures. That is, all *creatures that live on the earth.’

v18 Noah’s sons, who went out from the *ark, were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was Canaan’s father. v19 Those three were Noah’s sons. Those sons’ *descendants spread all over the earth.

v20 Noah was a man that worked on the land. He was the first person that made a vineyard (a garden where *grapes grow). v21 Noah drank some *wine and he became *drunk. He lay in his tent and he was naked. v22 Ham saw his naked father Noah. (Ham was Canaan’s father.) Ham went outside and he told his two brothers about it. v23 Then Shem and Japheth took a *cloak. And they laid it upon the shoulders of them both. They walked *backward and they covered their naked father with the *cloak. They turned their faces away so that they did not see their naked father.

v24 Later Noah woke and he was not *drunk any longer. Then he discovered what his youngest son had done. v25 So he said, ‘Canaan has a *curse. He will be his brother’s slave. He will have a lower position than any other slave.’ v26 Noah also said, ‘Let people *bless the *Lord, who is Shem’s God. Let Canaan be Shem’s slave. v27 Let God make Japheth increase. Let Japheth live in Shem’s tents. Let Canaan be Japheth’s slave.’

v28 Noah lived 350 more years after the flood. v29 His whole life lasted for 950 years. Then he died.

God is perfect. But people often do wrong things.

God’s *covenant (agreement) with Noah reminds us about the wrong things that we do. It is not like God’s words to the first people in Genesis 1:28-30. God spoke those words before people *sinned. And he only promised good things then.

But God made the *covenant with Noah after people had *sinned. This *covenant promised many good things to people. But God also warned people in the *covenant. He spoke about murder. He warned people that they would be responsible for their evil behaviour. And he warned them that God would punish them for their evil deeds.

People would be evil. But God is kind. He promised never again to flood the whole world. And he used the rainbow to remind people about this promise.

Noah was a great servant of God. And Noah was a *righteous man. But Noah was not perfect. He did something that was very wrong. He drank too much wine. His son, called Ham, saw him. And Ham gossiped. This was terrible behaviour. He did not respect his father, although his father was a great servant of God. When Noah awoke, he spoke words about the future of his three sons. Noah spoke these words by the Holy Spirit, because Noah was a servant of God. Ham’s family would suffer because of Ham’s *sin. But Noah *blessed his other sons. Notes on the verses God makes a *covenant with Noah, 9:1-17 Verse 1 ‘Have very many children and *descendants.’ God said that also when he made people in the beginning. And he said the same words in *Hebrew when he made *creatures. Those words mean ‘have large families’. But they also mean ‘be useful’ and ‘be helpful’. They mean, ‘Be other people’s servant. Do not expect other people to serve you.’

Verse 2 Here, God seems to give to people more power over the *creatures. That is, more power than he gave earlier to Adam and Eve.

Verse 3 Here, God permits people to eat meat as well as vegetables and fruit.

Verse 4 God did not allow people to kill other people. If they did kill other people, they would be punished. He did not allow people to eat meat with blood in it. In that way, he reminded them that life is important. Life is ‘*holy’. God has made us like an image of himself. So we must not kill other people.

Verses 5-7 God’s punishment was fair. If there was a murder, people should kill the murderer only. In many places, families might fight each other because somebody had murdered someone from the other family. And they might kill each other because of that. Such a situation might continue for a very long time. But God did not say that that should happen.

Verses 8-11 God had made an agreement (*covenant) with Noah before the flood. He told Noah about it again here, because it was very important. God included all *creatures in the agreement. People must take care of God’s earth and God’s *creatures.

Verses 12-17 This does not mean that there were no rainbows before. But rainbows now have a new meaning. God’s agreement was with all the people and animals in the entire world. And the rainbow was a sign of that agreement. Noah and his son do something wrong, 9:18-29 Verse 20 ‘A man that worked on the land’. Noah was the master of the earth. After the flood, he became a farmer. He grew grapes (small, sweet fruit) that he made into *wine.

Verse 21 The writer does not hide from us the fact that Noah was not perfect. When he was naked like that, he was not giving honour to God. We can read in the Bible that *wine can be pleasant (Psalms 104:15). But we can see here that too much *wine is not good.

Verse 22 People should respect their parents. Ham should have covered his father. Then Ham should have said nothing. But he gossiped to his brothers. It is not certain whether Ham’s son Canaan *sinned too. It was Canaan that suffered as a result. God would later promise to bring his people (Shem’s *descendants) to a new country that was also called Canaan. The *Canaanites, the people that would live there first, would be Canaan’s *descendants. And they would be very wicked. Some people think that Ham did not just look at his father. They think that Ham did something worse than that. Some people think that he had some sort of sex with his father. But it is not necessary to think that. Ham did not respect his father, and in that way Ham *sinned.

Verse 23 Shem and Japheth respected their father. They were careful to look away from him as they covered him. A ‘cloak’ was a large piece of warm cloth. People wore it on top of other clothes during the day. And they used it as a blanket at night.

Verses 24-25 Noah spoke about the future of his sons by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, this was not just Noah’s idea. This was a message from God. We do not know when Ham’s *descendants became his two brothers’ slaves. But we do know that Canaan’s *descendants became very evil. In fact, they were so evil that God gave their land to Abraham’s *descendants. And God helped Abraham’s *descendants to overcome Canaan’s *descendants. (See the Book of Joshua.)

Verse 26 One would expect Noah to say ‘I *bless Shem, the *Lord’s man.’ It is not usual to ‘*bless the *Lord of a person’. But it might mean that Shem was the son that God *blessed in particular. And Noah was *blessing God especially because he (God) was Shem’s God. Shem’s *descendants were the people that God chose specially for himself. Abraham and his *descendants (Israel) were among Shem’s *descendants.

Verse 27 Let God ‘make Japheth increase’. The *Hebrew word for ‘Let him make bigger’ sounds like the name Japheth. It does not mean that Japheth would get fat! It means ‘Let Japheth’s *descendants increase in number and let them be more powerful.’ It is not clear what Noah was praying. Maybe he prayed that God would ‘live in Shem’s tents’. Or maybe he prayed that Japheth would live in them.

God did actually ‘live in the tents’ of Shem’s *descendants (Israel). That was because God chose that nation for himself. But this seems to be a peculiar *blessing for Japheth. Probably Noah was saying that Japheth would live in Shem’s tents. But we cannot discover when this happened. Many people have suggested different times.

This is one possible meaning. People that were not *Jews would live together with *Jews. That would happen by means of what Jesus did. (See Ephesians 2:11-19.) Noah repeated his words about Canaan again. That showed how important they were.

Verses 28-29 Noah lived a long life. God would not allow people in the future to live such long lives.

© 2006, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

May 2006

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var w1 = new Array;w1[0]=’<b%3Ebless</b%3E ~ to give someone a blessing; or to be kind to someone; or to do good things for someone; or to promise good things to someone.