Genesis 9:1

1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. ¹

Genesis 9:1 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 9:1

And God blessed Noah and his sons
With temporal blessings, not spiritual ones; for though some of them were blessed with such, yet not all, particularly Ham:

and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth;
depopulated by the flood: this is a renewal of the blessing on Adam, a power and faculty of propagating his species, which was as necessary now as then, since there were so few of the human race left in the world; and the renewal of this grant was the rather necessary, if, as has been observed, Noah and his sons were restrained from cohabiting with their wives while in the ark: but though these words are not an express command for the propagation of their species, yet more than a bare permission, at least they are a direction and instruction to it, and even carry in them a promise of fruitfulness, that they should multiply and increase, which was very needful at this time.

Genesis 9:1 In-Context

1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.

2 All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power.

3 Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food.

4 The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.

5 If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life.

Cross References

• 1. 9.1Genesis 1.28.