Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
God	אֱלֹהִים֒ 'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
blessed	וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ vay.Va.rekh	H1288	to kneel · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
God	אֱלֹהִ֗ים 'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
said	וַיֹּ֨אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fruitful	פְּר֥וּ pe.Ru	H6509	to bear fruit (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
multiply	וּרְב֛וּ u.re.Vu	H7235	to increase (in whatever respect) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
replenish	וּמִלְא֥וּ u.mil.'U	H4390	to fill or (intransitively) be full of · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
earth	הָאָ֖רֶץ ha.'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
it	וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ ve.khiv.Shu.ha	H3533	to tread down · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
dominion	וּרְד֞וּ u.re.Du	H7287	to tread down · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
fish	בִּדְגַ֤ת bid.Gat	H1710	a fish (often used collectively) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
sea	הַיָּם֙ hai.Yam	H3220	a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fowl	וּבְע֣וֹף u.ve.'of	H5775	a bird (as covered with feathers · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
air	הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם ha.sha.Ma.yim	H8064	the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
thing	חַיָּ֖ה chai.Yah	H2416	alive · noun, common feminine singular absolute
moveth	הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת ha.ro.Me.set	H7430	properly · definite article + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
earth	הָאָֽרֶץ ha.'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Genesis 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Leviticus 26:9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Psalms 128:3-4 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Genesis 22:17-18 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon th…
Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Genesis 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve pri…
Psalms 127:1-5 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:26-28

We have here the second part of the sixth day's work, the creation of man, which we are, in a special manner, concerned to take notice of, that we may know ourselves. Observe, I. That man was made last of all the creatures, that it might not be suspected that he had been, any way, a helper to God in the creation of the world: that question must be for ever humbling and mortifying to him, Where wast thou, or any of thy kind, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Job 38:4. Yet it was both an honour and a favour to him that he was made last: an honour, for the method of the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect to that which was more so; and a favour, for it was not fit h…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:28

Be fruitful, &c.--The human race in every country and age has been the offspring of the first pair. Amid all the varieties found among men, some black, some copper-colored, others white, the researches of modern science lead to a conclusion, fully accordant with the sacred history, that they are all of one species and of one family (Act 17:26). What power in the word of God! "He spake and it was done. He commanded and all things stood fast" [Psa 33:9]. "Great and manifold are thy works, Lord God Almighty! in wisdom hast thou made them all" [Psa 104:24]. We admire that wisdom, not only in the regular progress of creation, but in its perfect adaptation to the end. God is represented as pausing…

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Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them - Marked them as being under his especial protection, and gave them power to propagate and multiply their own kind on the earth. A large volume would be insufficient to contain what we know of the excellence and perfection of man, even in his present degraded fallen state. Both his body and soul are adapted with astonishing wisdom to their residence and occupations; and also the place of their residence, as well as the surrounding objects, in their diversity, color, and mutual relations, to the mind and body of this lord of the creation. The contrivance, arrangement, action, and re-action of the different parts of the body, show the admirable skill of the wondrous Creato…

The Church Fathers

Let no one think however that herein we depreciate marriage as an institution. We are well aware that it is not a stranger to God's blessing.… But our view of marriage is this; that, while the pursuit of heavenly things should be a man's first care, yet if he can use the advantages of marriage with sobriety and moderation, he need not despise this way of serving the state.
— Gregory of Nyssa, ON VIRGINITY 8

There are two ways to "increase": in the body and in the soul. The soul increases by education, progressing toward completion; the body increases (by growing) from small to large. He told, therefore, the senseless animals to increase by the development of the body. But to us he said "increase" in the inner person along ways which lead toward God. This was what Paul did, in his stretching out toward what lay ahead and forgetting what lie behind. This is godly increase.
— Gregory of Nyssa, ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN

And from that time, ever since the blessing which was pronounced upon man's generation, Genesis 1:28 the flesh and the soul have had a simultaneous birth, without any calculable difference in time; so that the two have been even generated together in the womb, as we have shown in our Treatise on the Soul. Contemporaneous in the womb, they are also temporally identical in their birth. The two are no doubt produced by human parents of two substances, but not at two different periods; rather they are so entirely one, that neither is before the other in point of time.
— Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fish — Called dag by the Hebrews, a word denoting great fecundity (Gen. 9:2; Num. 11:22; Jonah 2:1, 10). No fish is mentioned by name either in the Old or in the New Testament. Fish abounded in the…
Genesis — The five books of Moses were collectively called the Pentateuch, a word of Greek origin meaning “the five-fold book.” The Jews called them the Torah, i.e., “the law.” It is probable that the division…
Man — (1.) Heb. ‘Adam, used as the proper name of the first man. The name is derived from a word meaning “to be red,” and thus the first man was called Adam because he was formed from the red earth. It is…
Adam · 1. The first man. Creation of — 1. The first man. Creation of
B · Power over, given to man — Power over, given to man
Benedictions · .Upon man — .Upon man
Birds · Creation of, on the fifth creative day — Creation of, on the fifth creative day
Creation · Order of: Sixth day, making beasts of the earth, and man — Order of: Sixth day, making beasts of the earth, and man
Eve · Creation of — Creation of
Fishes · Man given dominion over — Man given dominion over
Fruits · NATURAL — NATURAL
Herbs, & C · Given as food to man — Given as food to man
Man · DOMINION OF

Genesis 1:28

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:26-28

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:28

Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:28

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 1:28

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:26-28

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:28

Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:28

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Genesis 1:28

John Calvin on Genesis 1:28-30

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 1:24–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 1:28

Rashi on Genesis 1:28