The First Book of Moses: Genesis

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 9 -

And God blessed Noah and his sons. And he said to them: “Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth.

And let the fear and trembling of you be upon all the animals of the earth, and upon all the birds of the air, along with all that moves across the earth. All the fish of the sea have been delivered into your hand.

And everything that moves and lives will be food for you. Just as with the edible plants, I have delivered them all to you,(a)

except that flesh with blood you shall not eat.

For I will examine the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast. So also, at the hand of mankind, at the hand of each man and his brother, I will examine the life of mankind.(b)

Whoever will shed human blood, his blood will be poured out. For man was indeed made to the image of God.

But as for you: increase and multiply, and go forth upon the earth and fulfill it.”(c)

To Noah and to his sons with him, God also said this:

“Behold, I will establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,

and with every living soul that is with you: as much with the birds as with the cattle and all the animals of the earth that have gone forth from the ark, and with all the wild beasts of the earth.

I will establish my covenant with you, and no longer will all that is flesh be put to death by the waters of a great flood, and, henceforth, there will not be a great flood to utterly destroy the earth.”

And God said: “This is the sign of the pact that I grant between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.

I will place my arc in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the pact between myself and the earth.(d)

And when I obscure the sky with clouds, my arc will appear in the clouds.

And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that enlivens flesh. And there will no longer be waters from a great flood to wipe away all that is flesh.

And the arc will be in the clouds, and I will see it, and I will remember the everlasting covenant that was enacted between God and every living soul of all that is flesh upon the earth.”

And God said to Noah, “This will be the sign of the covenant that I have established between myself and all that is flesh upon the earth.”

Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse

And so the sons of Noah, who came out of the ark, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now Ham himself is the father of Canaan.

These three are the sons of Noah. And from these all the family of mankind was spread over the whole earth.

And Noah, a good farmer, began to cultivate the land, and he planted a vineyard.(e)

And by drinking its wine, he became inebriated and was naked in his tent.(f)

Because of this, when Ham, the father of Canaan, had indeed seen the privates of his father to be naked, he reported it to his two brothers outside.

And truly, Shem and Japheth put a cloak upon their arms, and, advancing backwards, covered the privates of their father. And their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s manhood.(g)

Then Noah, awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,(h)

he said, “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants will he be to his brothers.”(i)

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death

And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, let Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth, and may he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”

And after the great flood, Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years.

And all his days were completed in nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.

Footnotes

(a)9:3 As a phrase, ‘olera virentia’ refers to edible plants.(Conte)

(b)9:5 The word ‘requiram’ has more the sense of ‘examine,’ than of ‘require,’ especially in this context. The repetition of the word man, using both ‘hominis’ and ‘viri,’ indicates that the first usage applies to mankind.(Conte)

(c)9:7 God tells mankind not only to ‘replete’ (fill) the earth, as the animals do, but also to ‘implete’ (fulfill or complete) the earth, as only mankind can do.(Conte)

(d)9:13 This reference to rainbows as arcs in the sky calls to mind the ark of Noah. And it calls to mind the subsequent ark of the Covenant, which held the tablets of the Ten Commandments. And it calls to mind the Virgin Mary, who is the ark of the New Covenant. She will appear in the sky, just as the Book of Revelation says, in the last days, as a further sign of the covenant between God and man.(Conte)

(e)9:20 Here is an interesting use of the word ‘vir.’ The word ‘vir’ usually is translated as ‘man,’ or in some contexts as ‘husband.’ However, it is derived from the word meaning virtuous or powerful, so it often has a further connotation: not any man, but a good man or a powerful man. In the context of the phrase ‘vir agricola,’ the word vir, though a noun, has more of the effect of an adjective: ‘a good farmer.’(Conte)

(f)9:21 Drunk:Noe by the judgment of the fathers was not guilty of sin, in being overcome by wine: because he knew not the strength of it.(Challoner)

(g)9:23 Covered the nakedness:Thus, as St. Gregory takes notice L. 35; Moral. c. 22, we ought to cover the nakedness, that is, the sins, of our spiritual parents and superiors.(Challoner)

(h)9:24 What Ham, the father of Canaan, did was symbolic of the sins of Canaan, various sins beginning with immodesty, which began with Ham, and extending on to the much more serious sexual sins and idolatrous practices of Canaan. This passages marks the beginning of those later and more serious sins.(Conte)

(i)9:25 Cursed be Chanaan:The curses, as well as the blessings, of the patriarchs, were prophetical: And this in particular is here recorded by Moses, for the children of Israel, who were to possess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his father’s faults? The Hebrews answer, that he being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather’s nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it: which drew upon him, rather than upon the rest of the children of Cham, this prophetical curse.(Challoner)