In the Old Testament, God placed a rainbow in the clouds after Noah’s Flood.
The covenant appears in Genesis 9, after Noah, his family, and the animals leave the ark. God promises that a flood will not again destroy all flesh, and the rainbow is described as the sign of that covenant between God and the earth.
The passage presents the rainbow as a visible reminder of a divine promise. It is linked specifically to the Flood narrative, rather than to the construction of the ark or the later story of the Tower of Babel.
Readers sometimes associate the rainbow only with Noah personally, but the text describes a covenant involving God, Noah’s descendants, every living creature, and the earth. The Old Testament account therefore gives the sign both a personal and cosmic setting.