Genesis identifies a rainbow as the sign of God’s covenant after Noah’s Ark.
In Genesis 9, God establishes a covenant with Noah, his descendants, and every living creature that a Flood will not again destroy all life. The rainbow in the clouds is presented as the visible sign of that covenant. Whenever it appears, the text connects it with God’s promise to remember the covenant.
The passage extends the covenant beyond Noah’s family to animals and the earth itself. This broad scope is a notable feature of the story: the promise concerns the entire living world, not only the people who survived in the ark.
The rainbow also functions as a recurring visual motif in Jewish, Christian, and wider cultural interpretations of the Flood. Genesis does not say that rainbows first came into existence at this moment; it gives the rainbow a covenantal meaning within the narrative.