Bible Strands
Genesis 8:17
Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to Noah, his sons, and their wives inside the ark immediately after the floodwaters recede. The command follows the instruction to exit the vessel and precedes their actual departure.
The words — כָּל (kol) means "every" or "all," and חַיָּה (chaiyah) translates to "living creature" or "animal." These terms emphasize the comprehensive scope of the command to release every preserved life form.
The thread — The directive echoes the creation mandate in Genesis 1:22 and the post-flood blessing in Genesis 9:1, where God commands creatures and humanity to multiply and fill their respective domains. It also aligns with the blessing pattern in Psalm 107:38 regarding multiplication.
Why it lands — The text requires immediate obedience to release and repopulate the earth with every preserved species. It establishes a clear boundary between preservation inside the ark and active expansion outside it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
Cross-references
- Genesis 1:22 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
- Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
- Psalms 107:38 He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their herds diminish.
- Jeremiah 31:27 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.
- Genesis 1:28 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.”
- Genesis 7:14 they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature.
- Genesis 9:7 But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”
- Psalms 144:13 Our storehouses will be full, supplying all manner of produce; our flocks will bring forth thousands, tens of thousands in our fields.