Genesis 9:1-7

Common English Bible

God’s covenant with all life

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, multiply, and fill the earth. ²All of the animals on the earth will fear you and dread you—all the birds in the skies, everything crawling on the ground, and all of the sea’s fish. They are in your power. ³Everything that lives and moves will be your food. Just as I gave you the green grasses, I now give you everything. ⁴However, you must not eat meat with its life, its blood, in it.

⁵I will surely demand your blood for a human life,
        from every living thing I will demand it.
From humans, from a man for his brother,
        I will demand something for a human life.
⁶Whoever sheds human blood,
        by a human his blood will be shed;
for in the divine image
        God made human beings.