You have read Genesis 9 a dozen times.
Did anyone tell you it was addressed to you?
The first covenant in the Bible was not made with Abraham. It was made with Noah — with every family that would ever walk the earth. And it came with terms.
Most of us learned the flood story as children: the ark, the animals two by two, the dove, the rainbow. What we were rarely shown is what happens the moment Noah steps onto dry ground. God speaks. He blesses. And then He commands — not Israel, which does not yet exist, but Noah and his sons, and through them the whole human race.
"And God said to Noah and to his sons with him: As for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you."
"With your seed after you." That is every one of us. The Hebrew Bible's own tradition — carried in the Talmud and codified by Maimonides in the twelfth century — reads this covenant as a real one, with real obligations: seven of them. Not six hundred and thirteen. Seven. The Sages call them the Sheva Mitzvot Bnei Noach, the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah.
Here is what surprised us most when we first sat down with the sources. The Rabbis did not treat the nations as an afterthought. They asked, with great seriousness, what does God require of a person who is not a Jew? — and they answered from the text, word by word. The Talmud in Sanhedrin 56b takes a single verse, Genesis 2:16, and shows how six of the seven laws are folded into it, before the seventh is added at the Flood.
The seven, in one breath
- ONE GODNo idolatry — nothing created is to be worshipped.עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה
- HONOR HIS NAMENo blasphemy — the Name is not to be cursed.בִּרְכַּת הַשֵּׁם
- THE SANCTITY OF LIFENo murder — every person bears the image of God.שְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים
- THE SANCTITY OF FAMILYNo sexual immorality — the household is holy ground.גִּלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת
- WHAT IS NOT YOURSNo theft — in any of its disguises.גָּזֵל
- MERCY TO EVERY CREATURENo flesh torn from a living animal.אֵבֶר מִן הַחַי
- JUSTICE IN THE GATESEstablish courts — a society is commanded, not just a soul.דִּינִים
If you read that list and thought "but I already believe most of this" — yes. That is the point. You have been living inside the covenant without knowing its name.
Let us say this plainly
This book is not asking you to become Jewish.
Maimonides is explicit: Moses gave the Torah's commandments to Israel and to anyone who chooses to join Israel — "but one who does not wish to is not compelled." What the nations were given is the Seven. Keep them because God commanded them, he writes, and you are counted among "the pious of the nations of the world," with "a share in the World to Come." (Laws of Kings 8:10–11.)
There is no membership to apply for. There is no ritual to undergo. There is a text, and there is a life that answers it. We printed the text.
What you were told · What the text says
WHAT MANY OF US WERE TOLD
- The Old Testament's laws were "for the Jews" and have nothing to do with you.
- The rainbow is only a promise from God — nothing was asked of mankind.
- The Rabbis have no interest in what non-Jews do or believe.
- To have a relationship with the God of Israel you must convert to something.
WHAT THE TEXT SAYS
- Seven laws were commanded to "the children of Noah" — all humanity.SANHEDRIN 56a
- God "commanded the man" before Israel existed; the Sages find six laws in that one verse.GENESIS 2:16 · SANHEDRIN 56b
- "A non-Jew who occupies himself with his Torah is like a High Priest."SANHEDRIN 59a
- "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."ISAIAH 56:7
"For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
So we made the book we wished we'd had
- One chapter per law: the Torah verse in Hebrew and English, the Talmud's derivation, Maimonides' ruling, a plain explanation, and a "Living It" page.
- The full text of Genesis 9 and every source, printed in the original Hebrew — so you never have to take our word for it.
- A chapter on the reward: the righteous of the nations and the World to Come.
- A daily practice for a household that keeps the Seven.
- 66 pages, 6×9 in, cream paper, typeset to be read aloud.
If you have ever closed your Bible with the quiet feeling that the God of Abraham was speaking near you but not to you — this is the chapter you were never shown. It was there the whole time, in Genesis 9. We have simply bound it.