Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
Genesis 1:25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.”
The verse centers on "said", "make", "image", "likeness", "dominion", "over", and "fish". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "said" and "make", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 25's "God made the beasts of the earth..." into verse 27's "And God created man in His own...", so "said" and "make" belong inside that flow. In Genesis context, the local focus is creation, human rebellion, covenant promise, and God's providence.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "said" and "make" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.