A reading from the book of Genesis.

And God bless Noah, and his sons and said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens,

upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants, I give you

everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood, and for your life

blood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from man. From his fellow

man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and

multiply, increase greatly on the earth, and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons

with him. Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and your offspring after you, and with every living

creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you,

as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my

covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again

shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I make

between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow

in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds

over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and

you and every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God

and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah,

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