Genesis 9: “I do set my bow in the cloud”

A fresh start after the flood

Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives have left the ark. At the end of chapter 8 Noah builds an altar, and God resolves never again to curse the ground or destroy every living thing. Chapter 9 turns that resolution into words spoken to Noah.

It begins by echoing Genesis 1: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Humanity is being given a second beginning. There are new provisions too, permission to eat meat and a solemn ban on shedding human blood, because humans are made in God's image.

What does the rainbow mean in Genesis 9?

From verse 8 God announces a covenant, a binding promise, and it is remarkably broad. It is made with Noah, with his descendants, and with every living creature, birds, cattle and wild animals. It asks nothing in return. God simply commits himself: never again will a flood destroy the earth.

Verse 13 names the sign, the line on our print. The Hebrew word for bow, qeshet, is the same word used for a warrior's bow. Many readers have seen in this a beautiful image: God hangs up his weapon in the sky, pointed away from the earth, as a sign that the war is over. That reading is a reflection rather than a certainty, but it fits the tone of the passage.

Remarkably, the sign is said to remind God, not only people. When the bow appears in the cloud, God says, I will remember my covenant. The promise rests on his memory, not on ours.

Noah's ark in the nursery

With its animals two by two and its bright ending, the story of Noah's ark is among the most painted and most loved Bible stories for children. A rainbow print makes a cheerful nursery or playroom piece and a common baby shower or christening gift. Some families who have lost a pregnancy also cherish the rainbow as a sign of hope for a child born afterward.

The rainbow elsewhere in the Bible

Ezekiel 1 compares the brightness around God's throne to the bow in the cloud on a day of rain. Revelation 4 describes a rainbow round about the throne, and Revelation 10 an angel with a rainbow upon his head. Through Isaiah (chapter 54), God compares his steadfast kindness toward Israel to the oath he swore after the flood.