Genesis 9

God blesses Noah and his sons, tells them to be fruitful and multiply.  Further, God will put the dread of men in all beasts, birds and fish and gives all plants and animals to man to eat.  However, a few rules go along with this gift:

* May not eat something that is alive or its blood

* Requires a reckoning of the blood of every beast and man; and

* If man sheds blood, his blood shall be shed.

God then again promises to never destroy earth by flood again and gives the rainbow as a symbol and to remind Him of this covenant.  Again, for an omnipresent God, it seems odd that He needs mementos to remind him to not recreate the off the scales carnage He just unleashed on His creations. 

Noah's sons leave the ark and become the fathers of all of earth's peoples.  Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent.  So the father and sons are going in different directions after the trauma of enduring the death of almost all life on earth.  Anyway, Ham, who in verse 22 is referred to as Noah's youngest, becomes father of Canaan, who in verse 24 is referred to as Noah's youngest, (unclear if "Canaan" is a person or a general description of the peoples that lived in Canaan) discovers a drunk, naked, passed out Noah and goes out to tell his brothers.

Shem and Japeth get a garment and enter Noah's tent walking backwards so as to not see Noah's nakedness and cover him with the garment.  Noah comes to and is enraged.  He curses Canaan (again, unclear if this is Ham's/his son or the land) as the slave of the other two brothers.  Seems a slight overreaction to these modern eyes, but this seems sanctioned by God, so who am I to argue.

Asimov discusses the enigmatic character of Enoch, the one that walked with God.  Asimov notes that the genealogical chains of Cain and Enoch are very similar.  Also, the extreme ages of the patriarchs appear to be borrowed from Sumerian legend, where many heroes would live up to 65,000 years.  Enoch lives for 365 years before walking with God, coincidentally the same number of days in a year, while his father lives 965 years and his son 969.

GOD'S COMMANDMENT(S):

Genesi 9:4 - May not anything alive or its blood.

Genesis 9:6 -  Requires a reckoning of the blood of every beast and man.  Not sure really what this means.  I think it may mean that every death must be accounted for, such as a murderer brought to justice or thanks given to God for meat.  Not sure, though.

Genesis 9:6 -  If man sheds blood, his blood shall be shed.

 Genesis 9:7 - Go forth, be fruitful and multiply.
 
DIFFICULTY OF FOLLOWING COMMANDMENT(S):

A rib eye served anything but rare is a crime, so we've blown past the not eating blood thing for the most of us.  

Verse 6 is the first mention of capital punishment for murder.  Cain got off light with his mark and wandering.  I support capital punishment, and vote for politicians that also support it, although I've never directly participated in an execution personally.  I think I pass.

GOD'S DEATH TOLL THIS CHAPTER:

Nobody, but Ham and his descendants are cursed to be slaves by Noah.  Thanks, dad.

GOD'S RUNNING DEATH TOLL:

Still beyond count. Going to have to reset the running total for the next section.