God’s Promise to Noah

9 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ^(A)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ^2 (B)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 (C)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ^(D)all things, even as the ^(E)green herbs. ^4 (F)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; ^(G)from the hand of every beast I will require it, and ^(H)from the hand of man. From the hand of every ^(I)man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, ^(M)behold, I establish ^(N)My covenant with you and with your ^[a]descendants after you, ^10 (O)and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus ^(P)I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said: ^(Q)“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set ^(R)My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and ^(S)I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember ^(T)the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ^(U)And Ham was the father of Canaan. ^19 (V)These three were the sons of Noah, ^(W)and from these the whole earth was populated.

²⁰ And Noah began to be ^(X)a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ Then he drank of the wine ^(Y)and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ^23 (Z)But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were ^[b]turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴ So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ²⁵ Then he said:

²⁶ And he said:

²⁸ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

Submit to Government

13 Let every soul be ^(A)subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists ^(B)the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will ^[a]bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? ^(C)Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. ⁴ For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ⁵ Therefore ^(D)you must be subject, not only because of wrath ^(E)but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. ^7 (F)Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Love Your Neighbor^(G)

⁸ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for ^(H)he who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, ^(I)“You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” ^[b]“You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ^(J)“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore ^(K)love is the fulfillment of the law.

Put on Christ

¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time ^(L)to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand. ^(M)Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and ^(N)let us put on the armor of light. ^13 (O)Let us walk ^[c]properly, as in the day, ^(P)not in revelry and drunkenness, ^(Q)not in lewdness and lust, ^(R)not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But ^(S)put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ^(T)make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.