Genesis 8:18-9:17

English Standard Version

¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

God's Covenant with Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And when the Lord smelled ^(A)the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again ^(B)curse^[a] the ground because of man, for ^(C)the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. ^(D)Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. ^22 (E)While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, ^(F)day and night, shall not cease.”

9 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ^(G)“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ^2 (H)The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. ^3 (I)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And ^(J)as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its ^(K)life, that is, its blood. ⁵ And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: ^(L)from every beast I will require it and ^(M)from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

⁷ And you,^[b] be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, ^(P)I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. ^11 (Q)I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, ^(R)“This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I have set ^(S)my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ^15 (T)I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember ^(U)the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”