Genesis 1:28
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּה הָֽרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָם֮ אֱלֹהִים֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לָהֶ֜ם אֱלֹהִ֗ים פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ וּרְד֞וּ בִּדְגַ֤ת הַיָּם֙ וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּ֖ה הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
καὶ ηὐλόγησεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς λέγων Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε, καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὐτῆς, καὶ ἄρχετε τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πάντων τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν ἑρπόντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Benedixitque illis Deus, et ait: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram, et subjicite eam, et dominamini piscibus maris, et volatilibus cæli, et universis animantibus, quæ moventur super terram.
Y los bendijo Dios; y díjoles Dios: Fructificad y multiplicad, y henchid la tierra, y sojuzgadla, y señoread en los peces de la mar, y en las aves de los cielos, y en todas las bestias que se mueven sobre la tierra.
God 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.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 1:28 combines blessing and command: God blesses the newly created humans and addresses five imperatives to them — be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and rule — over the earth and its creatures.
Key words
- y.Va.rekh ("he blessed", H1288) — piel (intensive) verb in narrative form.
- pe.Ru ("be fruitful", H6509) — plural imperative.
- re.Vu ("multiply", H7235) — plural imperative.
- khiv.Shu. ("subdue", H3533) — imperative with a suffix resuming "the earth."
- re.Du ("rule", H7287) — plural imperative.
What the text says
Two narrative forms open the verse: y.Va.rekh ("he blessed", H1288), which the provided morphology classifies as piel — the intensive stem —, and i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559). The addressee is plural: he blessed "them" and spoke "to them."
The direct speech consists of five imperatives addressed to "you all (m.)": pe.Ru ("be fruitful", H6509), re.Vu ("multiply", H7235), mil.'U ("fill", H4390) — whose object is the 'A.retz ("earth", H0776) —, khiv.Shu. ("subdue", H3533), with a feminine suffix resuming the earth, and re.Du ("rule", H7287). This last verb governs three domains: the d.Gat ("[the] fish of", H1710) of the Yam ("sea", H3220), the 'of ("[the] bird[s] of", H5775) of the sha.Ma.yim ("heavens", H8064), and every chai.Yah ("animal", H2416) moving on the earth, qualified by the feminine participle ro.Me.set ("creeps", H7430).
Differences between versions
The Hebrew list of domains has three members: fish, birds, and every living creature that creeps. The provided LXX expands it to five, adding "all the livestock and all the earth" (πάντων τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς) before the creeping things; the Vulgate and the RV1909 keep three members. Also, the Hebrew says "and God said to them," with the addressee explicit; the LXX expresses this with the participle λέγων ("saying"), without an equivalent of "to them," while the Vulgate places the pronoun with the blessing: "Benedixitque illis Deus."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.