Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 9

God blessed Noah. —The blessing bestowed upon Noah, the second father of humankind, is exactly parallel to that given to our first father in Genesis 1:28-29; Genesis 2:16–17, with a significant addition growing out of the past. There is the same command to fill the world with human life, and the same promise that the fear of humans shall rest upon all living creatures; but this grant of dominion is so extended that the animals are now given to humans for their food.

But just as there was a restriction regarding Adam’s food, the fruit of the tree of knowledge being denied him, so now there is a prohibition against the eating of blood. The addition is the sanctity given to human life, with the evident object of guarding against such a disruption of the human race as was the result of Cain’s murder of Abel. Thus, humans start afresh upon their task of subjugating the earth, with increased empire over the animal world, and with their own lives more solemnly guarded and made secure.

But flesh... — The words are remarkable. Only flesh in its soul, its blood, you shall not eat. The Authorised Version is probably right in taking blood as in apposition to soul, which word means here the principle of animation, or that which causes an animal to live.

This is God’s special gift, for He alone can bestow upon that aggregation of solids and fluids which we call a body the secret principle of life. Of this hidden life the blood is the representative. And while humans are permitted to have the body for food, it being the mere vessel that contains this life, the gift itself must go back to God, and the blood as its symbol must be treated with reverence.

Your blood of your lives… — This verse should be translated: “And surely your blood, which is for your souls, will I require (that is, avenge); from every beast will I require it, and from man: even from a man’s brother will I require the soul of man,” as from Cain. “Your blood, which is for your souls,” means that it is the means for the maintenance of the animal life within them. Since it is, then, the support of human life, an animal that sheds it becomes guilty and must be slain; and even more so, those animals that prey on humans must be destroyed.

Thus, a command is given for the eradication of carnivores at the time when the more peaceful animals had just been saved. The last clause literally is… at the hand of man, at the hand of one that is his brother, will I require the soul of man. This has nothing to do with the avenger of blood. The close relative is here the murderer, and the commandment requires that even such a one should not be spared.

By man ... — This penalty of life for life is not to be left to natural law, but man himself, in such a manner and under such safeguards as the civil law in each country directs, is to execute the Divine command. And thus protected from the violence of both humans and animals, and with all such terrible crimes forbidden that had polluted Adam’s beginning, Noah in peace and security is to begin anew mankind’s great work on earth.

I, behold, I establish my covenant ... The covenant between God and man is thus solemnly introduced as Elohim’s personal act. No covenant is mentioned as existing between Elohim and the antediluvian world; but distinctly now there is a step onward in all respects, and man, in the renovated earth after the flood, is brought nearer to God by being admitted into covenant with Him. And not only is man included in the covenant, but, first, those animals which had been with Noah in the ark; and, secondly, those which had not been admitted there.

For the words of Genesis 9:10 are: From all that go out of the ark unto every beast of the earth (the larger world). To such straits are those reduced who hold to the theory of a universal deluge, that Kalisch argues that it means the fish, as if fish would be destroyed by a second flood any more than they were by the first. Plainly, the words imply the existence of a larger world-sphere than that in connection with Noah, and give the assurance that not only those now providentially preserved, but the animals everywhere, shall never again be in danger of a similar extinction.