God blesses Noah and his sons and grants them flesh for food, 1-3. Blood and murder are forbidden, 4- 7. God's covenant, of which the rainbow was constituted a pledge, 8-17. Noah's family replenish the world, 18, 19. Noah plants a vineyard, 20. Is drunken and mocked by his son, 21-24. Curses Canaan, 25. Blesses Shem, 26. Prays for Japheth, and dies, 27-29.
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, upon every bird of the air, upon all that moves on the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. Even as the green herb, I have given you all things. 4 But flesh with its life, which is its blood, you shall not eat. 5 And surely for your blood of your lives I will require [an accounting]. At the hand of every beast I will require it. And at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother I will require [an accounting for] the life of man.
6 "Whoever sheds man's blood,/
by man his blood shall be shed,/
for in the image of God he made man.
7 And you, be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein."
8 And God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 "And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your posterity after you, 10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the bird, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters of a flood, neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 And God said, "This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, 15 And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." 17 And God said to Noah, "This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."
18 And the sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20 And Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard. 21 And he drank the wine and was drunken and uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backward and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 And he said,
"Canaan is cursed./
A servant of servants he shall be to his brothers."
26 And he said,
"Blessed be the LORD God of Shem,/
and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth,/
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,/
and Canaan shall be his servant."
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years. And he died.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Genesis, Chapter 9[➚]
[v.4] - Reference, Leviticus 7:26, 17:10-11, 14, 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23, 15:23; Revelation 5:6-10.
[v.5] - Text in square brackets added for implied meaning.
[v.6a] - "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed" - Reference, Exodus 21:12; Leviticus 24:17.
[v.6b] - "in the image of God he made man" - Reference, Genesis 1:26-27.