Genesis 9:1

1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Have many children; grow in number and 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 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Have many children; grow in number and fill the earth.

2 Every animal on earth, every bird in the sky, every animal that crawls on the ground, and every fish in the sea will respect and fear you. I have given them to you.

3 "Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants, but now I give you everything for food.

4 But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life.

5 I will demand blood for life. I will demand the life of any animal that kills a person, and I will demand the life of anyone who takes another person's life.