I establish my covenant with you: establish is the same causative form of the verb as in verse 9, but here the regular narrative tense is used. If the verb is taken as having a present sense, this statement is introductory to the terms of the covenant and presents God as the one who initiates the covenant. It is the equivalent of the English expressions “For my part I promise…,” “As for me I agree to…,” “Here is what I agree to…,” “I commit myself to you by promising….” Some commentators and translators, however, take the verb as having a future sense: “And I will maintain my covenant with you, that…” (Speiser), “I shall sustain my covenant with you:…” (New English Bible). The verb used can mean to keep something standing as well as to cause something to stand in the first place. Either sense is acceptable.

For my covenant see verse 9 and 6.18. You is again plural, with reference to Noah and his sons.

The words which follow that in Revised Standard Version are the content or terms of the covenant from God’s side. In many languages they will need to be introduced by an appropriate formal marker like “With these words” (Good News Translation, see discussion of the next verse). Two examples are “I make my contract with you in this talk:…” and “This is my word: I promise that….”

That never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood is the first half of the promise and is nearly identical in meaning to the second half. All flesh means all life, all living beings, human and animal life. Be cut off represents the passive form of the verb to cut off. The sense is to “destroy,” “extinguish,” “do away with,” “eliminate,” “cause to die.”

By the waters of a flood, that is, “by causing a flood.” In languages that do not use the passive construction, it may be necessary to say, for example, “I will never again cause a flood to destroy all humans and animals” or “I promise that I will never again kill all living things by drowning them in a flood.”

The second half of the promise, never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth, is parallel in sense to the first part. Destroy translates the same word used in 6.13. The earth probably refers here to the physical world rather than to the people as in the first half of the verse. So Speiser has “… devastate the earth,” and Revised English Bible “… lay waste the earth.” One translation expresses the second half of the verse as “… and a flood won’t ever cover every place in the world again.”

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 .