Genesis 8:15-9:7

New King James Version

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, ^(A)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and ^(B)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

God’s Covenant with Creation

²⁰ Then Noah built an ^(C)altar to the Lord, and took of ^(D)every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered ^(E)burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And the Lord smelled ^(F)a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again ^(G)curse the ground for man’s sake, although the ^(H)imagination^[a] of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^(I)nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

God’s Promise to Noah

9 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ^(L)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ^2 (M)And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. ^3 (N)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ^(O)all things, even as the ^(P)green herbs. ^4 (Q)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; ^(R)from the hand of every beast I will require it, and ^(S)from the hand of man. From the hand of every ^(T)man’s brother I will require the life of man.