Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 9:1-7

"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens; With all wherewith the ground teemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; As the green herb have I given you all. But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require; At the hand of every beast will I require it. And at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man`s brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man`s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: For in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein." — Genesis 9:1-7 (ASV)

2. מורא môrā' — “fear, reverence, awful deed.” חת chat — “dread, breaking of the courage.”

Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the Lord with burnt offerings.

In him, therefore, the human race is to be begun anew. Accordingly, as at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to bless him:

1. The grant of increase is the same as at first, but expressed in fuller terms.
2. Dominion over the other animals is renewed. However, some reluctance on their part to yield obedience is intimated: The fear and dread of you. These terms indicate a master whose power is dreaded, rather than a superior whose friendly protection is sought. Into your hand are they given (Genesis 9:2). They are placed entirely at the disposal of man.

The grant of sustenance is no longer confined to the vegetable but extended to animal kinds, with two solemn restrictions. This explains how fully the animals are handed over to the will of man. They were slain for sacrifice from the earliest times. Whether they were used for food before this time we are not informed.

But now every creeper that is alive is granted for food (Genesis 9:3). Every creeper is everything that moves with the body prone to the earth, and therefore in a creeping posture. This seems to describe the inferior animals in contrast to man, who walks erect. The phrase that is alive seems to exclude animals that have died a natural death from being used as food.

The first restriction on the grant of animal food is expressed this way: Flesh with its life, its blood, shall you not eat (Genesis 9:4). The animal must be slain before any part of it is used for food. And as it lives as long as the blood flows in its veins, the life-blood must be drawn before its flesh can be eaten. The design of this restriction is to prevent the horrid cruelty of mutilating or cooking an animal while still alive and capable of suffering pain. The draining of the blood from the body is an obvious cause of death, and therefore the prohibition to eat the flesh with the blood of life is a necessary restraint from savage cruelty.

It is also intended, perhaps, to teach that the life of the animal, which is in the blood, does not belong to man, but to God Himself, who gave it. He regards it for atonement in sacrifice; otherwise, it is to be poured on the ground and covered with dust (Leviticus 17:11–13).

The second restriction guards human life. The shedding of human blood is sternly prohibited. Your blood of your lives... Will I require (Genesis 9:5). This means the blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the very life of your physical nature, God will require. I, the Lord, will find the murderer out and enforce the penalty of his crime.

The very beast that causes the death of man shall be slain. The suicide and the homicide are alike accountable to God for the shedding of man’s blood. The penalty of murder is proclaimed here—death for death (Genesis 9:6). It is an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity: whoever deprives another of any property is bound to compensate for it or to suffer a similar loss.

The first law proclaimed in Scripture was that between Creator and creature. If the creature refuses the Creator the obedience due, he forfeits all the Creator has given him and, therefore, his life.

Hence, when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new development of that sin which was in him. Being already condemned to the extreme penalty under the first transgression, he had only a minor punishment attached to his personal crime. And so it continued to be in the antediluvian world. No civil law is on record for the restriction of crime.

Cain, indeed, feared the natural vengeance which his conscience told him his sin deserved. But it was not justly permissible for the private individual to undertake the enforcement of the penalties of natural law.

As long as the law was between Creator and creature, God Himself was not only the sole legislator but the sole administrator of law.

The second law is that between creature and creature, which is introduced here on the occasion of giving permission to partake of animal food, as the first was published when granting the use of vegetable diet. In the former case, God is the administrator of the law, as He is the immediate and sovereign party in the legal agreement. In the latter case, man is, by the express appointment of the Lord of all, appointed as the executive agent.

By man shall his blood be shed (Genesis 9:6). Here, then, is the formal institution of civil government. Here the civil sword is entrusted to man. The judgment of death by the executioner is solemnly delegated to man to uphold human life. This trust is conveyed in the most general terms. By man. The divine legislator does not name the sovereign, define his powers, or determine the law of succession. All these practical conditions of a stable government are left as open questions.

The emphasis is placed solely on man. On man, the obligation of instituting a civil constitution suitable for his present fallen condition is impressively placed.

On the nation as a body, it is a binding duty to select the sovereign, to form the civil agreement between prince and people, to settle the prerogative of the sovereign and the rights of the subjects, to fix the order of succession, to constitute the legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies, and to give due submission to the established authorities. All these arrangements are to be made according to the principles of Scripture and the light of nature.

The reason why retribution is demanded in the case of man is also given here: For in the image of God has he made man (Genesis 9:6). This points, on the one hand, to the function of the magistrate and, on the other, to the claims of the violated law; and in both respects illustrates the meaning of being created in the image of God. Man resembles God in that he is a moral being, judging right and wrong, endowed with reason and will, and capable of holding and exercising rights.

Hence, he is in the first place competent to rule and, on his creation, authorized to exercise a mild and moral sway over the inferior creatures. His capacity to govern even among his fellow-men is now recognized. The function of self-government in civil things is now given to man. When duly called to the office, he is declared to be free to act as a ruler among his fellow-men and is entitled, based on this divine arrangement, to claim the obedience of those who are under his sway. He must rule in the Lord, and they must obey in the Lord.

However, in the next place, man is capable of, and has been actually endowed with, rights of property in himself, his children, his industrial products, his purchases, gifts received, and his claims by covenant or promise. He can also recognize such rights in another. When, therefore, he is deprived of anything belonging to him, he is aware of being wronged and feels that the wrongdoer is bound to provide compensation by giving back what he has taken away, or an equivalent in its place. This is the law of requital, which is the universal principle of justice between the wrongdoer and the wrong-sufferer.

Hence, the blood of him who sheds blood is to be shed. In setting up a system of human government, the most natural and obvious case is given, in the manner of Scripture, as a sample of the law by which punishment is to be inflicted on the transgressor in proportion to his crime.

The case in point, therefore, arises necessarily out of the permission to use animal food. This permission requires guarding, on the one hand, by a provision against cruelty to animals and, on the other, by an enactment forbidding the taking away of human life, under penalty of death, by order of the civil magistrate.

This case, then, turns out to be the most heinous crime which man can commit against his fellow-man and strikingly exemplifies the great common principle of retributive justice.

The brute is not a moral being and, therefore, has no proper rights in itself. Its blood can therefore be shed with impunity. Nevertheless, man, because he is a moral being, owes a certain negative duty to the brute animal, because it is capable of pain. He is not to inflict gratuitous or unnecessary suffering on a being capable of such torture. Hence, the appropriateness of the blood being shed before the flesh is used for food. Life, and therefore the sense of pain, is extinguished when the blood is withdrawn from the veins.