Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

9 God blessed Noach and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. ² The fear and dread of you will be upon every wild animal, every bird in the air, every creature populating the ground, and all the fish in the sea; they have been handed over to you. ³ Every moving thing that lives will be food for you; just as I gave you green plants before, so now I give you everything — ⁴ only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you are not to eat. ⁵ I will certainly demand an accounting for the blood of your lives: I will demand it from every animal and from every human being. I will demand from every human being an accounting for the life of his fellow human being. ⁶ Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being will his own blood be shed; for God made human beings in his image. ⁷ And you people, be fruitful, multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply on it.”

(v) ⁸ God spoke to Noach and his sons with him; he said, ⁹ “As for me — I am herewith establishing my covenant with you, with your descendants after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you — the birds, the livestock and every wild animal with you, all going out of the ark, every animal on earth. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you that never again will all living beings be destroyed by the waters of a flood, and there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God added, “Here is the sign of the covenant I am making between myself and you and every living creature with you, for all generations to come: ¹³ I am putting my rainbow in the cloud — it will be there as a sign of the covenant between myself and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow is seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant which is between myself and you and every living creature of any kind; and the water will never again become a flood to destroy all living beings. ¹⁶ The rainbow will be in the cloud; so that when I look at it, I will remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of any kind on the earth.”

¹⁷ God said to Noach, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between myself and every living creature on the earth.”

³² What more should I say? There isn’t time to tell about Gid‘on, Barak, Shimshon, Yiftach, David, Sh’mu’el and the prophets; ³³ who, through trusting, conquered kingdoms, worked righteousness, received what was promised, shut the mouths of lions,^{[a] 34} quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, had their weakness turned to strength, grew mighty in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead resurrected; other people were stretched on the rack and beaten to death, refusing to be ransomed, so that they would gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Others underwent the trials of being mocked and whipped, then chained and imprisoned. ³⁷ They were stoned, sawed in two, murdered by the sword; they went about clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated, ³⁸ wandering about in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground! The world was not worthy of them!

³⁹ All of these had their merit attested because of their trusting. Nevertheless, they did not receive what had been promised, ⁴⁰ because God had planned something better that would involve us, so that only with us would they be brought to the goal.