Genesis 9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 9
Covenant with Noah. 1 [a]God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.(A) 2 [b]Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 3 (B)Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 4 (C)Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.[c] 5 Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.(D)
6 [d]Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being,
by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed;
For in the image of God
have human beings been made.(E)
7 Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.(F)
8 [e]God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you(G) 10 and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. 11 I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.(H) 12 God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13 (I)I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.(J) 16 When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. 17 God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.
Noah and His Sons. 18 [f]The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.(K) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.(L) 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. 23 Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said:
“Cursed be Caanan!
The lowest of slaves
shall he be to his brothers.”(M)
26 He also said:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!
Let Canaan be his slave.
27 May God expand Japheth,[g]
and may he dwell among the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29 The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.
Footnotes
- 9:1 God reaffirms without change the original blessing and mandate of 1:28. In the Mesopotamian epic Atrahasis, on which the Genesis story is partly modeled, the gods changed their original plan by restricting human population through such means as childhood diseases, birth demons, and mandating celibacy among certain groups of women.
- 9:2–3 Pre-flood creatures, including human beings, are depicted as vegetarians (1:29–30). In view of the human propensity to violence, God changes the original prohibition against eating meat.
- 9:4 Because a living being dies when it loses most of its blood, the ancients regarded blood as the seat of life, and therefore as sacred. Jewish tradition considered the prohibition against eating meat with blood to be binding on all, because it was given by God to Noah, the new ancestor of all humankind; therefore the early Christian Church retained it for a time (Acts 15:20, 29).
- 9:6 The image of God, given to the first man and woman and transmitted to every human being, is the reason that no violent attacks can be made upon human beings. That image is the basis of the dignity of every individual who, in some sense, “represents” God in the world.
- 9:8–17 God makes a covenant with Noah and his descendants and, remarkably, with all the animals who come out of the ark: never again shall the world be destroyed by flood. The sign of this solemn promise is the appearance of a rainbow.
- 9:18–27 The character of the three sons is sketched here. The fault is not Noah’s (for he could not be expected to know about the intoxicating effect of wine) but Ham’s, who shames his father by looking on his nakedness, and then tells the other sons. Ham’s conduct is meant to prefigure the later shameful sexual practices of the Canaanites, which are alleged in numerous biblical passages. The point of the story is revealed in Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan and his blessing of Shem and Japheth.
- 9:27 In the Hebrew text there is a play on the words yapt (“expand”) and yepet (“Japheth”).
Génesis 9
La Palabra (Hispanoamérica)
La alianza de Dios con Noé
9 Dios bendijo a Noé y a sus hijos, diciéndoles:
— Sean fecundos, reprodúzcanse y pueblen la tierra. 2 Todos los animales los temerán y los respetarán: las aves del cielo, los reptiles del suelo y los peces del mar están bajo su dominio. 3 Todo lo que se mueve y tiene vida, al igual que los vegetales, les servirá de alimento. Yo lo pongo a su disposición. 4 Pero no comerán la carne con sangre, porque la sangre es su vida. 5 Yo pediré cuentas de su sangre y de sus vidas, se lo reclamaré a cualquier animal. También a cualquier ser humano que mate a un hermano suyo, le pediré cuentas de esa vida.
6 Si alguien derrama la sangre de un ser humano,
otro ser humano derramará la suya,
porque Dios creo al ser humano
a su propia imagen.
7 Ustedes sean fecundos y multiplíquense; pueblen la tierra y domínenla.
8 Dios siguió diciéndoles a Noé y sus hijos:
9 — Miren, yo establezco mi alianza con ustedes, con sus descendientes, 10 y con todos los animales que los han acompañado: aves, ganados y bestias; con todos los animales que salieron del arca y ahora pueblan la tierra. 11 Esta es mi alianza con ustedes: la vida no volverá a ser exterminada por la aguas del diluvio, ni habrá otro diluvio que devaste la tierra.
12 Y Dios añadió:
— Esta es la señal de la alianza que establezco para siempre con ustedes y con todos los animales que los han acompañado: 13 he puesto mi arco en las nubes como un signo de mi alianza con la tierra. 14 Cuando yo cubra la tierra de nubes y en ellas aparezca el arco, 15 me acordaré de la alianza que he establecido con ustedes y con todos los animales, y las aguas del diluvio no los volverán a aniquilar. 16 Cada vez que aparezca el arco entre las nubes, yo lo veré y me acordaré de la alianza eterna entre Dios y todos los seres vivos que pueblan la tierra.
17 Dios dijo a Noé:
— Esta es la señal de la alianza que establezco con todos los seres vivos que pueblan la tierra.
Los hijos de Noé
18 Los hijos de Noé que salieron del arca fueron Sem, Cam y Jafet. Cam fue el padre de Canaán. 19 A partir de estos tres hijos de Noé y sus descendientes se pobló toda la tierra. 20 Noé comenzó a cultivar la tierra y plantó una viña. 21 Pero, al beber vino, se emborrachó y quedó tendido desnudo en medio de su tienda. 22 Cuando Cam, el padre de Canaán, vio a su padre desnudo, salió a contárselo a sus dos hermanos. 23 Entonces Sem y Jafet tomaron un manto, se lo echaron sobre los hombros de ambos y taparon a su padre con él; para no verlo desnudo, caminaron de espaldas y mirando hacia otro lado.
24 Cuando se le pasó a Noé la borrachera y se enteró de lo que le había hecho su hijo menor, 25 dijo:
¡Maldito sea Canaán!
¡Será esclavo para sus hermanos,
el último de los esclavos!
26 Y agregó:
¡Bendito sea el Señor, Dios de Sem!
¡Que Canaán sea su esclavo!
27 ¡Que Dios engrandezca a Jafet,
para que habite en los campamentos de Sem,
y Canaán sea su esclavo!
28 Después del diluvio, Noé vivió trescientos cincuenta años, 29 y a la edad de novecientos cincuenta años murió.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
La Palabra, (versión hispanoamericana) © 2010 Texto y Edición, Sociedad Bíblica de España