¹⁵ God spoke to Noah. He said, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of every sort that is with you, all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may swarm over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸ Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species.^[a]

²⁰ Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. ²² While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

God’s Covenant With the Earth

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ² Every animal on the earth and every bird in the sky will fear you and dread you. Everything that swarms on the ground and all the fish in the sea are handed over to you. ³ Every living, moving thing will be food for you. I have given everything to you, just as I gave you the green plants. ⁴ But flesh that has the blood (which is its life) still in it, you shall not eat. ⁵ In fact, I will hold each animal and each person responsible for your lifeblood. I will hold each man responsible for the life of his brother. ⁶ Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.

⁷ “But you, be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply on it.”

⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons, who were with him, ⁹ “Listen, I will now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with everything with you that has the breath of life: with the birds, with the livestock, and with every wild animal that is on the earth with you, with everything that went out of the ark, even with every wild animal on the earth. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all living creatures^[a] be cut off by the waters of a flood. Neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort,^[b] and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

²⁷ “Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying? ²⁸ Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, ²⁹ but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?

³¹ “So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³² For the unbelievers^[a] chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Instructions About Worship

2 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all those who are in authority, in order that we might live a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. ⁷ For this testimony, I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I speak the truth;^[a] I am not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

⁸ Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.