Genesis 1:28 (LSB)

Passage

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.”

Nearby Context

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.”

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

Genesis 1:30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "blessed", "said", "fruitful", "multiply", "fill", "earth", "subdue", and "dominion". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "blessed" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 27's "And God created man in His own..." into verse 29's "Then God said Behold I have given...", so "blessed" and "said" 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 "blessed" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.