And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Parallel translations
- WEB God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
- KJV And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
- NKJV So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
- NASB Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
- NLT Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God blessed Noah and his sons and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Creation's blessing is renewed in a fresh start.
Overview
This blessing echoes God's words to Adam, marking Noah as a kind of new beginning for humanity. The renewed creation mandate shows God's continued purpose for people to flourish and fill the earth. It testifies to God's grace in giving the human race a new start after judgment, a foretaste of the greater new creation in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Gen 1:28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
- Gen 9:7But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”
- Gen 8:17Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”
- Gen 1:22Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
- Ps 128:3–4Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Isa 51:2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.
- Gen 10:32All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.
- Gen 2:3Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
- Gen 24:60And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- Gen 9:19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
- Ps 112:1Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 9:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.