Genesis 9:1

1 God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth!

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: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth!

2 Every living creature - birds, animals, fish - will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them.

3 All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else.

4 Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it - don't eat that.

5 "But your own lifeblood I will avenge; I will avenge it against both animals and other humans.