1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.”
2 “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air; on all that moves on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand are they given.
3 “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; just as the green herbs have I given you all things.”
4 “But the flesh of a living creature, nor it's blood you shall not eat.”
5 “And surely, for your life-blood I will require an accounting; from the hand of every beast will I require it, and from the hand of man; even at the hand of a man’s brother I will require the life of man.”
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he made man.”
7 “And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.”
8 And God spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 “And I behold I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed[a] after you;
10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you: Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there again 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 genrations[a]:
13 And my rainbow I set in the clouds, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall be that when I bring a cloud over the earth, there shall be seen the rainbow 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 never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the rainbow shall be in the clouds; and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant which is made between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”
17 And God said unto Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is living on earth.”
18 And the sons of Noah, that 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 these three was populated all the earth.
20 And Noah began to farm, and planted a vineyard:
21 and he drank of the wine, and became drunk; and he uncovered himself[a] in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 And Shem took a garment, and with Japeth laid it upon both their shoulders; they went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and they turned their faces away so they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his [c]youngest son had done unto him.
25 And he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”
26 And he said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem[a]; And let Canaan be his servant.”
27 May God extend this also to Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.
28 And Noah lived after the flood 350 years.
29 And all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
[4] You shall not eat the limb of a living animal; also you shall not eat (drink) it's blood.
[9a] “zar-‘ă-ḵem” your descendants “’a-ḥă-rê-ḵem.” after you.
[12] “lə-ḏō-rōṯ” for generations “‘ō-w-lām.” perpetual. The word (lə-ḏō-rōṯ) “for generations” is written defective (without Vav) implying that the sign will be necessary only for such generations as are “defective” in faith, because there will be some generations which will require no sign since they were completely righteous, such as the generation of Hezekiah, King of Judah (Genesis Rabbah 35:2).
[21a] * From Rashi “and he uncovered himself – this is the Hithpael form”.
[21] “’ā-ho-lōh” (tent). This word is written “’ā-ho-lōh” (with 'h' at end instead of 'v') so that it may be regarded as an allusion to the ten tribes who were spoken of as Samaria which was called “’ā-ho-lāh” (see: Ezekiel 23:4) and who were exiled because of indulgence in wine, at it is said in Amos 6:6 “that drink wine in bowls”. “’ā-ho-lāh” and “’ā-ho-lî-ḇāh” are satirical names given by the prophet Ezekiel to the cities of Samaria (in Northern Israel) and Jerusalem (in Judah), respectively (see Ezekiel 24:1-4).
Also note here the allusion to adultery in the Hebrew. “’ā-ho-lāh” means “her tent”, and “’ā-ho-lî-ḇāh” means “my tent is in her”. The Hebrew prophets frequently compared the sin of idolatry to the sin of adultery, in a reappearing rhetorical figure. Ezekiel's rhetoric directed against these two allegorical figures depicts them as lusting after Egyptian men in explicitly sexual terms in Ezekiel 23:20–23. Thus, the first understanding is that Ham castrated Noah in order to garner a larger share of inheritance (since he had only one son – thus justifying the punishment that he would not have any further sons, and that his son would be cursed) – it is also said that he sodomized Noah (based on this allusion of “’ā-ho-lāh”) re: Sanhedrin 70a. See: [25] below.
[23] 'And Shem took (and Japeth),” reflecting the underlying Hebrew, to show the point from the Hebrew that Shem was the one who took action, and led his brother; Japeth only helped and did what Shem told him to do. Also note the 'and they turned their faces away,' because as they got closer it states they turned away to avoid catching any glimpse.
[25] On “cursed be Canaan” Rashi writes, “You have brought it about that I cannot beget a fourth son to serve me; cursed, therefore, be your fourth son (see 10:6) to serve under the descendants of these elder ones upon whom the duty of serving me will devolve from now on.” Why did Ham maltreat him in this manner? He said to his brothers, “Adam Harishon had two sons and one killed the other in order that he might possess the whole world (Genesis Rabbah 36:7) our father already has three sons, and he wishes to have yet another”.
[26] 'of Shem' for the reason of [23]. Shem, who in days to come carry out this promise to his descendants to give them the land of Canaan.
[29] This counting, 350, 950 shows that counting begins from the origin of the event; in this case the moment of Noah's 600th year and not necessarily the date of the actual event itself. I.E. were the Israelites in Egypt for 210 years or 430 years? We include the 220 years prior to them entering Egypt because this is when it started (with Isaac).