Covenant of the Rainbow

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “^(A)Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the sky; on everything that crawls on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. They are handed over to you. ³ Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, ^(B)as I gave the green plant. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, ^(C)its blood. ⁵ I certainly will require ^[a](D)your lifeblood; ^[b](E)from every animal I will require it. And ^[c]from every person, ^[d]from every man as his brother I will require the life of a person.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now behold, ^(I)I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your ^[f]descendants after you; ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every animal of the earth. ¹¹ I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall ^(J)never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, ^(K)nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God said, “This is ^(L)the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for ^[g]all future generations; ¹³ I have set My ^(M)rainbow in the cloud, and it shall ^[h]serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall come about, when I make a cloud appear over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and ^(N)I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and ^(O)never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look at it, to remember the ^(P)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.”

The Tower of Babel

11 Now all the earth ^[a]used the same language and ^[b]the same words. ² And it came about, as they journeyed ^[c]east, that they found a plain in the land ^(A)of Shinar and ^[d]settled there. ³ Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and ^[e]fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used ^(B)tar for mortar. ⁴ And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^(C)will reach into heaven, and let’s make ^(D)a name for ourselves; otherwise we ^(E)will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” ⁵ Now ^(F)the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the ^[f]men had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^[g](G)the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be ^[h]impossible for them. ⁷ Come, ^[i](H)let Us go down and there ^(I)confuse their ^[j]language, so that they will not understand one another’s ^[k]speech.” ⁸ So the Lord ^(J)scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore it was named ^[l](K)Babel, because there the Lord confused the ^[m]language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.