Genesis9:13

Translation

I will place

my bow

with the cloud

and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Paraphrase

I will place my bow in the sky where the clouds live, and I will give responsibility for the rainbow to the clouds. This bow will serve as a covenantal sign to remind everyone of the covenant between me and the earth.

Footnotes

1

This word means “to give, establish, put, set, place, assign, appoint, grant, permit, ascribe, apply, consecrate, dedicate, pay, make, constitute, provide, yield, bestow.” Usually it is translated in a way that indicates that God placed this bow in the clouds as the location where they can be found. There is another way to render this verb that indicates that God “assigned” the rainbow to the clouds, thus putting them in charge of the rainbow. After the clouds do what they do – produce rain- then they fulfill the rest of their responsibility by producing a rainbow. I think a double meaning may be intended here since the use of the preposition ”in or with” favors the common rendition, and the fact that the rainbow does not make itself visible until after the rain favors the alternate rendering.

2

The word used here simply means “a bow.” Context tells us it is associated with the rain, and therefore, we call it a rainbow.

3

The preposition used in this phrase usually means “in” but it can also mean “with” and a few other things. Because of this preposition, the first verb cannot be separated from the physical placement God chose for the rainbow. However, the idea of “with” can communicate that God put the rainbow in the sky along with other things that reside up there, such as clouds.