Needed: A New Heart – Genesis 8:20-9:29
8 (20) Then Noah built an altar to Jehovah, and taking some of all the ceremonially clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. (21) And Jehovah smelled the sweet aroma and said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again destroy every living creature, as I have done. (22) As long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth. (2) The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens. All the creatures with which the land teems, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand. (3) Everything that lives and moves shall be food for you. Just as I have given you the green plants, so now I give you all things. (4) But meat with its life—which is its blood—you shall not eat. (5) And surely for your lifeblood will I require an accounting; from every beast will I require it, and also from man. From each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. (6) Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; because God made man in the image of God. (7) As for you, be fruitful, and multiply; increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply upon it.
(8) Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, (9) I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; (10) and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you—all that come out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. (11) I establish my covenant with you; never again shall all mortal life be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.
(12) And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you, a perpetual covenant for all generations to come. (13) I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (14) Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, (15) and I will remember my covenant, that is between me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all mortal life. (16) When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it, and so be reminded of the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is upon the earth. (17) So God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all mortal life that is upon the earth.
(18) Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) (19) These three men were the sons of Noah; and by these three the whole earth was populated. (20) Now Noah became a tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. (21) Then he drank of the wine produced by his vineyard, and he became drunk. And he lay naked in his tent. (22) Then Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside. (23) And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon their shoulders, and walking with their backs toward their father, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
(24) Then Noah awoke from his sleep induced by the wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him. (25) Then he said, Cursed be Canaan. The lowliest of servants shall he be to his brothers. (26) And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. (27) And he said, May God increase Japheth’s possessions, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. And let Canaan be his servant.
(28) After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. (29) Altogether Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
