The Hebrew Bible says Noah planted a vineyard (Genesis 9:20). The Targum Jonathan says he "found a vine which the river had brought away from the garden of Eden." This single addition transforms Noah from a farmer into a man who accidentally recovered a relic of paradise. The grapevine was not just any plant. It was Edenic, carried downstream by the Flood from the original garden. Noah's drunkenness becomes something stranger and sadder—he was undone by a fruit of Eden itself.
The chapter opens with dietary law, and the Targum sharpens every rule. The Hebrew forbids eating flesh "with the life-blood still in it" (Genesis 9:4). The Targum specifies two cases: flesh "torn of the living beast, what time the life is in it" and flesh "torn from a slaughtered animal before all the breath has gone forth." This is not translation. This is early halakhah (Jewish religious law) embedded in narrative—the Targum is legislating the Noahide laws with the precision of a legal code.
The murder law gets the same treatment. The Hebrew says "whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6). The Targum splits this into two legal scenarios. If there are witnesses, "the judges shall condemn him unto death." If there are no witnesses, "the Lord of the world will bring punishment on him in the day of the great judgment." The translators built an entire judicial system into a single verse, complete with an eschatological fallback for unprovable crimes.
The rainbow covenant is filtered through the Memra as always—"between My Word and the earth"—but the real surprise comes with Ham. The Hebrew says Noah "knew what his youngest son had done to him." The Targum says Noah learned this "by the relation of a dream." And Ham was cursed not just for seeing his father's nakedness, but because he was "inferior in worth, on the account that he had not begotten a fourth son." The curse falls on Canaan, Ham's fourth son, because Ham's failure to produce a fourth worthy heir somehow demanded it.
The blessing of Japheth is equally transformed. The Hebrew says God will "enlarge Japheth" (Genesis 9:27). The Targum says Japheth's sons "shall be proselyted and dwell in the schools of Shem." The translators turned a territorial blessing into a prophecy about conversion to Judaism and Torah study.
And the Lord blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them, Spread forth and multiply, and replenish the earth.
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and on every fowl of the heavens; of all that the earth swarmeth forth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered.
Every moving thing which liveth to you shall be for food: as the green herb have I given to you the whole.
But flesh which is torn of the living beast, what time the life is in it, or that torn from a slaughtered animal before all the breath has gone forth, you shall not eat.
But the blood of your lives I will I require of every animal which hath killed a man, I will require that it be put to death on his account. And from the hand of the human being, from the hand of the man who hath shed the blood of his brother, will I require the life of man.
Whoso sheddeth the blood of man, the judges, by witnesses, shall condemn him unto death; but he who sheddeth it without witnesses, the Lord of the world will bring punishment on him in the day of the great judgment; because in the image of the Lord He made man.
And you, spread yourselves abroad and multiply; bring forth in the earth, and increase in it.
And the Lord spake to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your children after you;
and with every living soul that is with you, of birds, and of cattle, and of every beast of the earth that is with you, of all that go forth from the ark, of every beast of the earth.
And I will establish my covenant with you, and will not again cause all flesh to perish by the waters of a flood; and there shall not again be a flood to destroy the earth.
And the Lord said, This is the sign of the covenant which I establish between My Word and between you and every living soul that is with you, unto the generations of the world.
I have set My Bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of the covenant between My Word and the earth.
And it shall be that when I spread forth My glorious cloud over the earth, the bow shall be seen in the day (time), while the sun is not sunk (or hidden) in a cloud.
And I will remember My covenant which is between My Word and between you and every living soul of all flesh, that there shall not be the waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between the Word of the Lord and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And the Lord said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have covenanted between My Word and between the word for all flesh that is upon the earth.
And the sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Cham, and Japhet; and Cham is the father of Kenaan.
These are the three sons of Noah, and from them they were spread abroad to dwell in all the earth.
And Noah began to be a man working in the earth. And he found a vine which the river had brought away from the garden of Eden; and he planted it in a vineyard, and it flourished in a day; and its grapes became ripe, and he pressed them out.
And he drank of the wine and was drunken; and he made himself naked in the midst of his tent.
And Cham, the father of Kenaan, beheld the nakedness of his father, and showed to his brethren without.
And Shem and Japhet took a mantle, and bare it upon the shoulders of each, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned back, and the nakedness of their father they did not behold.
And Noach awoke from his wine, and knew, by the relation of a dream, what had been done to him by Cham his son, who was inferior in worth, on the account that he had not begotten a fourth son.
And he said, Accursed is Kenaan who is his fourth son, a serving servant shall he be to his brethren.
And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, whose work is righteous; and therefore shall Kenaan be servant unto him.
The Lord shall beautify the borders of Japhet, and his sons shall be proselyted and dwell in the schools of Shem, and Kenaan shall be a servant to them.
And Noach lived after the deluge three hundred and fifty years.
And all the days of Noach were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
