Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. A psalm of David.

God Makes a Covenant With Noah

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have children so that there are many of you. Fill the earth. ² All the land animals will be afraid of you. All the birds in the sky will be afraid of you. Every creature that moves along the ground will be afraid of you. So will every fish in the seas. Every living thing is put under your control. ³ Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. I have already given you the green plants for food. Now I am giving you everything.

⁴ “But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it. ⁵ I will certainly hold someone accountable if you are murdered. I will even hold animals accountable if they kill you. I will also hold anyone accountable who murders another person.

⁷ Have children so that there will be many of you. Multiply and become many on the earth.”

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons who were with him. He said, ⁹ “I am now making my covenant with you and with all your children who will be born after you. ¹⁰ I am making it also with every living creature that was with you in the ark. I am making my covenant with the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals. I am making it with all the creatures that came out of the ark with you. In fact, I am making it with every living thing on earth. ¹¹ Here is my covenant I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never again destroy all life. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”

¹² God continued, “My covenant is between me and you and every living creature with you. It is a covenant for all time to come. Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. ¹³ I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Sometimes when I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in them. ¹⁵ Then I will remember my covenant between me and you and every kind of living creature. The waters will never again become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living creature on earth.”

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.”

³² What more can I say? I don’t have time to tell about all the others. I don’t have time to talk about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. I don’t have time to tell about David and Samuel and the prophets. ³³ Because of their faith they took over kingdoms. They ruled fairly. They received the blessings God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions. ³⁴ They put out great fires. They escaped being killed by swords. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became powerful in battle. They beat back armies from other countries. ³⁵ Women received back their dead. The dead were raised to life again. There were others who were made to suffer greatly. But they refused to be set free. They did this so that after death they would be raised to an even better life. ³⁶ Some were made fun of and even whipped. Some were held by chains. Some were put in prison. ³⁷ Some were killed with stones. Some were sawed in two. Some were killed by swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats. They were poor. They were attacked. They were treated badly. ³⁸ The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains. They lived in caves. They lived in holes in the ground.

³⁹ All these people were praised because they had faith. But none of them received what God had promised. ⁴⁰ That’s because God had planned something better for us. So they would only be made perfect together with us.