Genesis 1:22

22 So God blessed them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."^[a]

Genesis 1:22 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 1:22

And God blessed them
With a power to procreate their kind, and continue their species, as it is interpreted in the next clause; saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the
seas:
and these creatures do multiply exceedingly, and vast quantities there are of them in the mighty waters, though the consumption of some sorts of them is very great. Our English word "fish" is derived from the Hebrew word (vwp) , "fush", which signifies to multiply and increase: and let fowl multiply in the earth;
as they did, and continue to do to this day.

Genesis 1:22 In-Context

20 Then God said, "Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."

21 So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. [He also created] every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

22 So God blessed them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."

23 Evening came, and then morning: the fifth day.

24 Then God said, "Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gn 8:17