Genesis 9:16

Hebrew Bible

14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the bow35 appears in the clouds, 15 then I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures of all kinds. Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy all living things. 16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth. 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.” 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.)

Isaiah 24:5

Hebrew Bible

3 The earth will be completely devastated and thoroughly ransacked. For the Lord has decreed this judgment. 4 The earth dries up and withers, the world shrivels up and withers; the prominent people of the earth fade away. 5 The earth is defiled by its inhabitants, for they have violated laws, disregarded the regulation, and broken the permanent treaty. 6 So a treaty curse devours the earth; its inhabitants pay for their guilt. This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, and are reduced to just a handful of people. 7 The new wine dries up, the vines shrivel up, all those who like to celebrate groan.

 Notes and References

"... There is another possible allusion to the Noahide flood narrative in these chapters. In Isaiah 26:20–21, God instructs his people to hide themselves until his anger should pass and the world rid of the bloodshed and its iniquitous inhabitants who have polluted it. The instruction for God’s differentiated and favored people to hide to avoid destruction, to many scholars, echo both the Passover and the Noahide flood narratives.6 The verbal and thematic echo of the flood narrative is particularly strong. Just as God instructs Noah to enter the Ark (Genesis 6:18, 19, 20; 7:1, 9, 13, 15, 16), so too does God instruct his people to enter their rooms and to hide there (Isaiah 26:20). And just as God closed the door of Noah’s Ark behind Noah after him (Genesis 7:16), so too does he command his people to close the door behind them (Isaiah 26:20). If God’s eschatological judgment was imagined to take the form of a flood, comparable to the one God unleashed during the time of Noah, then God here shows particular favor to his people and provides them a safe haven. However, it should be noted, God does not instruct the people to enter Noah’s Ark but their rooms, more reminiscent of the Passover narrative than the flood. The point that needs to be repeated, in this light, is that the flood imagery is but one of the metaphors the author employed to figure destruction. The Isaianic author activates the image and memory of the flood to communicate the cosmic scope of God’s judgment. However, he does not say that judgment will in fact take the form of a flood, lest he portray God as reneging on his “everlasting covenant” not to destroy the earth by means of the flood (Genesis 9:8–17). In light of the observation that the Apocalypse may allude to the Noahide flood in 24:18 and 26:20–21, an allusion to the Noahide covenant in Isaiah 24:5 (compare Genesis 9:16) appears possible ..."

Cho, Paul K. K. Myth, History, and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible (pp. 175-176) Cambridge University Press, 2018

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