Genesis 9

The Covenant and the Bow

God blesses Noah’s family as He blessed the first man and woman, gives them the animals for food but not their blood, and covenants with every living thing never again to destroy the earth by a flood, with His bow in the cloud as the token. Then Noah plants a vineyard, and a family’s shame ends in a curse on Canaan and blessings on Shem and Japheth.

Genesis chaptersChapter 9 of 50

After the Flood, to Noah’s death at 950 (verse 29). Genesis gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Genesis 9 closes the history that begins “These are the generations of Noah” (Gen. 6:9).

Genesis 9 closes the history that begins “These are the generations of Noah” (Gen. 6:9). The waters are gone, Noah has offered his sacrifice, and the LORD has resolved not to curse the ground again (Gen. 8:20–22). Now God speaks to Noah and his sons, and the resolve becomes a covenant. The chapter ends with Noah’s death in the formula of the family record of chapter 5 (compare Gen. 5:5), and its list of his three sons, “of them was the whole earth overspread” (verse 19), opens onto the table of nations in Gen. 10.

The Book of Moses retells Genesis only as far as Gen. 6:13, but Joseph Smith’s revision of the Bible continues, and its changes to this chapter are printed in the footnotes and the Bible’s appendix. They answer two questions a reader would ask here: what limit God set on killing, and what the covenant of the rainbow was for. The notes below bring them in at those verses.

Later scripture returns to this chapter. Isaiah builds on God’s oath to Noah (Isa. 54:9–10), and Ezekiel and John see the bow again around the throne of God (Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 4:3).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 9 is a second beginning. God blesses Noah and his sons with the words He spoke to the first man and woman, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (verse 1;…

Genesis 9 is a second beginning. God blesses Noah and his sons with the words He spoke to the first man and woman, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (verse 1; Gen. 1:28), and says them again in verse 7. Between the two blessings He sets out the terms of life in the world after the Flood: the animals are given for food, but not their blood, and human life, made in God’s image, is protected by the gravest penalty (verses 2–6).

Then God binds Himself. The word covenant comes seven times in verses 9–17, and every promise in it is God’s. It reaches beyond Noah’s family to “every living creature,” and it has a token God Himself will look at. Joseph Smith’s revision says what God remembers when He sees the bow: the covenant He made with Enoch, that Zion would come again to the earth.

The last scene comes back to the family. Noah plants a vineyard and lies drunk and uncovered in his tent. One son tells what he saw; two walk in backward and cover their father. Noah’s last recorded words are a curse and two blessings, and the blessing goes to “the LORD God of Shem” (verse 26), whose line leads to Abraham (Gen. 11:10–26).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–7

The blessing renewed

In plain words

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Every animal on the earth, every bird in the sky, everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea will fear you and dread you; they are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat with its life, that is, its blood, still in it.

“And for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting. I will demand it from every animal, and from every human being: from each one I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being his blood will be shed, because God made human beings in His own image. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Related Scriptures #

Noah begins again, like Adam

God blesses Noah’s family with the words He first spoke to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:28), and the verses that follow carry “allusions to the covenant language found in the Garden of…

God blesses Noah’s family with the words He first spoke to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:28), and the verses that follow carry “allusions to the covenant language found in the Garden of Eden”: the command to multiply and replenish the earth, then dominion over the creatures (verse 2) and the gift of food (verse 3; compare Gen. 1:29–30).

Joseph Smith taught that the likeness between the two men goes beyond words. Of Adam he said, “he had dominion given him over every living Creature.” Then came “Noah who is Gabriel”: “he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was called of God to this office,” and like Adam he was “the Father of all living” in his day, to whom “was Given the Dominion.” The Noah who hears God’s blessing renewed here is also “the angel Gabriel,” who later announced the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus (Luke 1:19; Luke 1:26–31).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 115–62. Joseph Smith, Discourse, between circa 26 June and circa 4 August 1839–A, as Reported by Willard Richards, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 63. “Noah”, Bible Dictionary.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Related Scriptures #

Meat, with a limit

God now gives the animals as food, as He had given the plants at the Creation: “even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Gen. 1:29–30).

God now gives the animals as food, as He had given the plants at the Creation: “even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Gen. 1:29–30). “Meat” in the King James Bible means “food in general” (see the note on Gen. 1:29).

Joseph Smith’s revision sets a limit on it: “blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands.” The change emphasizes “that God would hold Noah and his posterity accountable for how they treated the life of animals.” Latter-day revelation gives both halves of the teaching. The beasts and the birds are “ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment,” but “wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need” (D&C 49:19; D&C 49:21). The Word of Wisdom adds that the flesh of animals is to be eaten “with thanksgiving” and “used sparingly” (D&C 89:12).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9, Gospel Library. Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).

4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Language #

The life is in the blood

The one thing withheld is the blood, because the blood is the life. The Hebrew reads “flesh with its life (be-nafsho), its blood,” using nefesh, the word for life or soul.

The one thing withheld is the blood, because the blood is the life. The Hebrew reads “flesh with its life (be-nafsho), its blood,” using nefesh, the word for life or soul. Israel regarded the blood “as the seat of the life or vital energy of all flesh,” and the law of Moses gives the reason in the Lord’s own words: “the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). The atoning power of a sacrifice lay in its blood “because it was regarded as containing the life of the animal and because the sacrifice was a type of the great sacrifice who is Jesus Christ” (compare Heb. 9:22).

The rule is given to Noah, the ancestor of every nation, long before Israel. The apostles did not burden Gentile converts with the law of Moses, but they were still to abstain “from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:19–20; Acts 15:29): “Because these laws dated back to the time of Noah, they had universal applicability, whereas the law of Moses was issued only to the house of Israel.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. “Blood”, Bible Dictionary. Scripture Central, “Why Was the Jerusalem Council Important?”, KnoWhy #680, July 18, 2023. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.

6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Language #

Blood for blood, because of God’s image

In Hebrew the penalty mirrors the crime word for word: shofekh dam ha-adam, ba-adam damo yishshafekh, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed.”

In Hebrew the penalty mirrors the crime word for word: shofekh dam ha-adam, ba-adam damo yishshafekh, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed.” The words of the first half (sheds, blood, man) come back in the second in reverse order (man, blood, shed). The reason follows: “for in the image of God made he man” (see Gen. 1:27). Human life is guarded because it bears God’s image.

Joseph Smith’s revision turns the penalty into a commandment: “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for man shall not shed the blood of man. For a commandment I give, that every man’s brother shall preserve the life of man, for in mine own image have I made man.”

Does the verse require governments to put murderers to death? The Church takes no side: it “regards the question of whether and in what circumstances the state should impose capital punishment as a matter to be decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law. We neither promote nor oppose capital punishment.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9, Gospel Library. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Capital Punishment, Official statement, Newsroom. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Verses 8–17

The covenant and the bow

In plain words

Then God said to Noah and his sons, “I am establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, every animal that came out of the ark. Never again will all living things be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, for all generations to come: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in them, I will remember my covenant with you and with every living creature, and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all life. When the bow is in the clouds, I will look at it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

Related Scriptures #

The covenant God made with Enoch

God had promised this covenant before the Flood (Gen. 6:18), and here He establishes it.

God had promised this covenant before the Flood (Gen. 6:18), and here He establishes it. The Hebrew verb for “establish” (heqim) means “to confirm or ratify pre-existing promises, oaths, vows, or covenants”: Noah “is already in a covenant relationship with God and is thus not entering into a totally new one.”

Latter-day revelation says with whom it was first made. Joseph Smith’s revision reads, “I will establish my covenant with you, which I made unto your father Enoch, concerning your seed after you.” The Book of Moses tells how it was made. Enoch saw the Flood in vision and pleaded for Noah and his seed, “that the earth might never more be covered by the floods,” and the Lord “covenanted with Enoch, and sware unto him with an oath, that he would stay the floods” (Moses 7:50–51). The promise of verse 11, “neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth,” is that oath, now spoken to the family that came through the Flood. It reaches past them too, to “every living creature” that came out of the ark (verse 10).

Sources: Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 115–62. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9, Gospel Library. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Noah”, Bible Dictionary.

10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, 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 any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more 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 do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

Imagery #

Why a bow?

The Hebrew word for the rainbow, qeshet, is the ordinary word for a bow, the weapon used in hunting and in battle; “rainbow” is its second meaning, here and in Ezek. 1:28.

The Hebrew word for the rainbow, qeshet, is the ordinary word for a bow, the weapon used in hunting and in battle; “rainbow” is its second meaning, here and in Ezek. 1:28. God calls it “my bow.” “In its ancient Near Eastern context, the bow could be associated with war and devastation,” and read against that background, a bow set in the sky after the storm is a weapon laid aside: it “represents a reconciliation between God and his children’s unrighteous state.” The text itself does not spell this out.

Was this the first rainbow? Genesis does not say. The plain wording, and God’s promise that the bow will be seen when He brings clouds, suggest to some readers that “the rainbow was a new phenomenon,” but “the giving of a ‘token’ is not necessarily equivalent to the creation of a feature in nature.” What the verse settles is what the bow now means. A token (Hebrew ’ot, “sign”) stands for a covenant. The same word is used when circumcision is made “a token of the covenant” with Abraham (Gen. 17:11).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 115–62. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Related Scriptures #

When Zion looks downward

God says the bow will remind Him. Joseph Smith’s revision says what He will remember: “the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all…

God says the bow will remind Him. Joseph Smith’s revision says what He will remember: “the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself.” It goes on: “when thy posterity shall embrace the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness,” and “the general assembly of the church of the firstborn shall come down out of heaven, and possess the earth.” The return of Enoch and his people in the last days “was also part of the Lord’s covenant.”

The bow is therefore more than a promise about the weather: it stands for covenant promises “that would result in gaining the presence of God.” Enoch saw the day it points to: the Lord would gather His elect to “an Holy City… called Zion, a New Jerusalem,” and Enoch and his city would “meet them there” (Moses 7:62–63). The revised text pictures that meeting from both sides: Zion looks downward as Noah’s posterity look upward. One reading sees the same meeting in the rainbow’s arc, rising from the earth and coming down to it again, as Enoch’s city was “taken up into heaven” and will return “in the latter days.” That is a reading of the image, not a revelation; what the revelation gives is the covenant itself.

Sources: Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9, Gospel Library. Moses 7, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 115–62. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Verses 18–19

The sons of Noah

In plain words

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

Verses 20–27

The vineyard, the curse, and the blessings

In plain words

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth took a cloak, laid it across their shoulders, walked in backward, and covered their father. Their faces were turned away, so they did not see him uncovered.

When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! He will be the lowest of servants to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be his servant. May God give Japheth room to spread, and may he live in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.”

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

Context #

Noah’s vineyard

Genesis tells of Noah’s drunkenness without comment. Verse 20 calls him ish ha-adamah, “a man of the ground,” and the KJV’s awkward “began to be an husbandman” follows a Hebrew…

Genesis tells of Noah’s drunkenness without comment. Verse 20 calls him ish ha-adamah, “a man of the ground,” and the KJV’s awkward “began to be an husbandman” follows a Hebrew that reads literally “And Noah began man of the soil and planted.” Joseph Smith’s revision smooths the line: “Noah began to till the Earth. And… he was an husbandman; & he planted a vineyard.” One reading takes “began” to mean that Noah “was the first to do so,” the “man who first made wine out of grapes, and drinking of it in ignorance was overcome by its potency.”

The man whom Genesis calls “a just man and perfect in his generations” (Gen. 6:9) now lies drunk and uncovered in his tent. Joseph Smith, who reworded verse 20, left verse 21 as it stands: “he drank of the wine And was drunken; & he was uncovered within his tent.” The story turns at once to what his sons did.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Old Testament Revision 2, The Joseph Smith Papers. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

Context #

What did Ham do?

The text says only that Ham saw his father uncovered and told his brothers.

The text says only that Ham saw his father uncovered and told his brothers. The contrast is drawn with care: Shem and Japheth take a garment, lay it on their shoulders, walk in backward with their faces turned away, and cover their father, “and they saw not their father’s nakedness” (verse 23). Yet verse 24 speaks of what Ham “had done unto him,” as though there were more than the story tells.

What that was is not recorded. Ham “may have dishonored his father or perhaps disrespected something sacred,” but “because we do not have all of the relevant details of the story, we do not know exactly what happened or its meaning.”

Sources: Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

Language #

Ham was the youngest

Genesis names the sons as “Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (verse 18; Gen. 5:32; Gen. 10:1), so a reader may wonder why Ham is called the younger son.

Genesis names the sons as “Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (verse 18; Gen. 5:32; Gen. 10:1), so a reader may wonder why Ham is called the younger son. The Hebrew, beno ha-qatan, is “his son, the little one”; qatan means “younger” when two are compared and “youngest” among several, as when Samuel asks Jesse about his sons and David is “the youngest” (1 Sam. 16:11).

The list, then, is not in order of birth, and the Book of Moses gives the births: Noah “begat Japheth; and forty-two years afterward he begat Shem of her who was the mother of Japheth, and when he was five hundred years old he begat Ham” (Moses 8:12). Japheth was the eldest and Ham the youngest of the three.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Japheth”, Bible Dictionary.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Context #

Why Canaan, and what the curse does not say

Noah curses Canaan, Ham’s son, not Ham, and “the scriptures don’t clearly explain why Ham’s son Canaan was cursed for his father’s offense against Noah.”

Noah curses Canaan, Ham’s son, not Ham, and “the scriptures don’t clearly explain why Ham’s son Canaan was cursed for his father’s offense against Noah.” Verse 18 has already named him, “Ham is the father of Canaan,” looking ahead to this verse. Canaan was Ham’s fourth son (Gen. 10:6), and his descendants were the peoples of the land from Sidon to Gaza (Gen. 10:15–19), the land God would later promise to Abraham (Gen. 17:8). “A servant of servants” (‘eved ‘avadim) means the “humblest servant.”

Joseph Smith’s revision adds that “a veil of darkness shall cover him, that he shall be known among all men,” and the meaning of that “veil of darkness” is unclear. The curse in Genesis says nothing about skin or race. Yet it was once used that way: “Some have incorrectly used the cursing of Canaan to justify slavery and discrimination—particularly toward people of Black African descent.” The past explanation for the priesthood and temple restriction “drew on then-common ideas that identified Black people as descendants of the biblical figures Cain and Ham. The Church has since disavowed this justification for the restriction.” The Lord’s word in this dispensation is that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” (D&C 101:79), and the Book of Mormon teaches that the Lord “denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free… and all are alike unto God” (2 Ne. 26:33).

Sources: Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. “Race and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.

26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Related Scriptures #

The blessing goes to Shem’s God

Noah does not say “Blessed be Shem” but “Blessed be the LORD God of Shem,” using the covenant name of God.

Noah does not say “Blessed be Shem” but “Blessed be the LORD God of Shem,” using the covenant name of God. The blessing is “invoked, not upon Shem himself, but upon Jehovah the God of Shem,” to say that “herein will lie the true welfare of the descendants of Shem”: their blessing is that the LORD will be their God. Shem’s line runs to Abraham (Gen. 11:10–26), and the LORD, Jehovah, “is the premortal Jesus Christ.”

Latter-day revelation remembers Shem as “the great high priest” (D&C 138:41), and the priesthood Abraham received from Melchizedek had come down “through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah” (D&C 84:14).

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Language #

Room for Japheth

The blessing on Japheth is a play on his name. “Enlarge” is yaft, and Japheth is Yefet; the verb means “be spacious, wide, open,” and the line means “may God make wide for Japhet…

The blessing on Japheth is a play on his name. “Enlarge” is yaft, and Japheth is Yefet; the verb means “be spacious, wide, open,” and the line means “may God make wide for Japhet (give him an extensive inheritance).” The blessing comes from “God” (Elohim), not from “the LORD,” as Shem’s did.

Who dwells in the tents of Shem? The Hebrew could be read with God as the subject, but the sense of the verse points to Japheth: the clause is a prayer “that Japheth may ever continue on terms of peace with Shem, and that his descendants, dwelling as guests among the Israelites, may partake of their privileges.” The next chapter says that from Japheth’s sons “were the isles of the Gentiles divided” (Gen. 10:5).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 28–29

The death of Noah

In plain words

Noah lived 350 years after the Flood. In all, Noah lived 950 years, and then he died.

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.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 9

The covenant of Genesis 9 was asked for in the name of Christ. Enoch prayed “in the name of thine Only Begotten, even Jesus Christ, that thou wilt have mercy upon Noah and his seed,” and the Lord answered with a covenant and an oath (Moses 7:50–51). In the same vision the Lord said, “Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come” (Moses 7:53).

Isaiah makes God’s oath to Noah the pattern of His faithfulness to His people: “as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee… my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed” (Isa. 54:9–10). The one who swears is “the LORD thy Redeemer” (Isa. 54:8), Jehovah, “the premortal Jesus Christ,” and the risen Savior spoke these words again to the Nephites (3 Ne. 22:8–10) before commanding them to search the words of Isaiah (3 Ne. 23:1). And when Ezekiel saw “the likeness of the glory of the LORD,” the image he reached for was this one: “the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain” (Ezek. 1:28).

Worth exploring next

Enoch’s covenant. Read Moses 7:41–69 beside verses 8–17, and Joseph Smith’s revision of verses 16–17 in the Bible’s appendix (JST Genesis 9:21–25).
The nations from Noah’s sons. Gen. 10, and Shem’s line to Abraham in Gen. 11:10–26.
The rainbow as a token. “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story,” in From Creation to Sinai (BYU Religious Studies Center), follows the covenant from Enoch through Noah.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 9, Gospel Library.
Old Testament Revision 2, The Joseph Smith Papers.
Joseph Smith, Discourse, between circa 26 June and circa 4 August 1839–A, as Reported by Willard Richards, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 63.
“Genesis”, Bible Dictionary.
“Noah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Japheth”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Blood”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Moses 7, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
“Race and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Capital Punishment, Official statement, Newsroom.
Aaron P. Schade, “The Rainbow as a Token in Genesis: Covenants and Promises in the Flood Story”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 115–62.
Scripture Central, “Why Was the Jerusalem Council Important?”, KnoWhy #680, July 18, 2023.
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.
Genesis 4–11: The Patriarchs, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).

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