Genesis 9:1-17 - God's Covenant With Noah And Humankind
1 God blessed Noah and his sons. He said: Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 All the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air will be filled with fear and dread of you. Every creature that moves along the ground and all the fish of the sea are placed under your control. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man.
6 Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
7 You should be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply (increase) on the earth.
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will the waters of a flood destroy all life. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 God said: This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I give you my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world of mankind. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the long lasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. 17 God said: This is the sign of the covenant I have established with all life on the earth.