God blesses Noah and his sons, and where he had previously given man the plants to eat, now God has also “given” man the fish and creeping things to eat. But man is forbidden to eat meat with its blood because life is in the blood. There will be more on that from God and from Moses later.

God establishes a covenant with Noah, his offspring, and with every living creature. He will never again destroy all life on the earth with a flood. Note that He does not promise there will never be ANY floods, but that the earth will never again be destroyed with one – even more proof against the suggestion that it could have been a “local” flood. Note also that in verse 13, God does not say that he just now set his bow in the sky – that rainbows didn’t exist before. We do not know whether the scientific properties for such had been already created or not.  He is simply saying that now it shall be sign of this covenant.

Ham’s sin against his father Noah was disrespect and humiliation. Noah’s curse of Ham’s son Canaan foretells the judgment that will later befall the Canaanites. We will read much more of Canaan’s line.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

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Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.
/Robert