Verse 16 adds no new information to verses 13-15.

When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it: bow is here translated the same as in verse 13 by Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation, on the other hand, now says “rainbow.” In the clouds is the same as in verse 13, in the singular here also, although Revised Standard Version renders it plural in this verse. See verse 13 for comments.

The everlasting covenant is an expression found frequently in the Old Testament. See, for example, 17.7, 13, 19; Exo 31.16; Lev 24.8; Num 18.19. The sense is “the covenant that is for all times,” “the covenant that will not end,” “the covenant that will always last.”

Between God: here we normally expect the pronoun “me,” but in Hebrew God, who is the speaker, refers to himself as God. Formal translations like Revised Standard Version retain God, but others replace God with a pronoun. Good News Translation has “between me and all….” Some translations avoid the preposition and say, for example, “which I have taken with all living species on earth” (Bible en français courant) or “I will remember the pact that I have made forever with every human being and every animal…” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).

Every living creature of all flesh is the same as in verse 15, with only that is upon the earth added. Just as we expect God to refer to himself as “me” when he is speaking, so in many languages he is expected to use “you [plural]” with this expression, since every living creature includes Noah and his family, who are being addressed. We may say, for example, “between me and you [plural] living on the earth.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .