“I have set my rainbow in the clouds”
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV) & KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
The ‘rainbow bible verse’ tells of God’s sign to preserve life on earth after the great flood. Widespread destruction and loss of life occurred due to the flood. Noah and his family survived the flood in an ark during the flooding period. After the rain subsided God tells Noah “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” according to the New International Version (NIV). This covenant is an alliance of friendship and a pledge of goodwill from God for renewed and enduring life on earth.
To get what Genesis 9:13 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “I do set” | נָתַ֖תִּי | To give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.) | do set |
| “my bow” | קַשְׁתִּ֕י | A bow, for shooting (hence, figuratively, strength) or the iris | bow |
| “in the cloud,” | בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן | A cloud (as covering the sky), i.e., the nimbus or thunder-cloud | cloud |
| “and it shall be” | וְהָֽיְתָה֙ | To exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) | and it shall be |
| “for a token” | לְא֣וֹת | A signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc | token |
| “of a covenant” | בְּרִ֔ית | A compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh) | covenant |
| “between” | בֵּינִ֖י | Between (repeated before each noun, often with other particles); also as a conjunction, either...or | between |
| “me and the earth.” | הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | earth |
See Genesis 9:13 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.