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		Rejoicing in Hope     Noach   (Gen 6:9 - 11:32)

B'resheet/Genesis 9:1   And G-d blessed Noakh and his sons and He said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth."

View whole verse and interlinear translation ...

Our text forms the opening bracket for what Judaism calls "the Noachide Laws" and is matched by a closing bracket - "Be fertile, then, and increase; abound on the earth and increase on it" (B'resheet 9:7, NJPS) - at the end before The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem moves to announce His covenant with all mankind. Leon Kass starts our discussion by noting that "the law is presented wrapped in a blessing ... the two similar injunctions ... make absolutely clear the law's paramount interest in promoting human life. Under the circumstances, no concern is more appropriate or more urgent than the growth and protection of life."¹ Laurence Turner points out that "the imperatives regarding human reproduction - repeated in verse 7 - underline the continuing importance to Yahweh of this aspect of human activity."² HaShem is determined that His relationship with mankind must continue as Terence Fretheim reports: "This blessing language stresses that, in the midst of death and destruction, G-d wills life; that will remains firmly in place even with 'the inclination of the human heart' (8:21) and the negative effects of continuing violence, injustice and disorder."³

Imagine how Noah and his family felt as emerged from the ark after the flood has swept everything and everyone away. Don Who Is ...

Abravanel: Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508 CE), Statesman and biblical commentator; born in Lisbon, died in Venice; wrote commentaries on the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures
Abravanel suggests that "when they came out of the ark, they were grieving for the friends and relatives they had lost and frightened of what might happen in the future." They cannot protect themselves in isolation; they must spread and flourish, reaching out across the whole world. Nahum Sarna says that "G-d's blessing to Noah and his family is socially oriented. They are not to withdraw from the world but to be fertile and to utilise the the resources of nature for humanity's benefit." Rabbi Who Is ...

Hirsch: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888 CE), German rabbi, author and educator; staunch opponent of the Reform movement in Germany and one of the fathers of Orthodox Judaism
Hirsch puts it this way: "In ברך mankind is endowed with the necessary powers and then in פרו and רבו given the mission of begetting children and bringing them up." Yet, as we will see, the creation mandate is more that just physical procreation.

The first blessing - "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth" (B'resheet 1:28, NJPS) - was spoken to the first man and woman. Robin Scroggs explains that the function of the first man is "to rule over the created order, the animals and the earth. The function of rulership is expressed through the word 'master' or 'subdue'."⁴ Although that last word is missing from our text, it seems that that HaShem is renewing the "fill and rule" mandate for Noah as a second Adam figure after the flood. The Who Is ...

The Radak: Rabbi David Kimḥi (1160-1235 CE), rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher and grammarian; born in Narbonne, France; best known for his commentaries on the Prophets, he also wrote a philosphical commentary on Bresheet that makes extensive use of the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel; influenced by a strong supporter of Ibn Ezra and Maimonides
Radak comments that "even though humanity had been blessed at the beginning of creation, the earth had returned to being 'unformed and void' (1:2) when it was covered by water, so this was the equivalent of being created anew." As the following chapters will show, the blessing works - mankind does rapidly rise in numbers. James McKeown notices that "the table of nations (in chapter 10) is introduced to testify to the efficacy of the post-flood blessing, which called on mankind to "be fruitful and multiply."⁵

Can you hear the emphasis on being fruitful? The imperative פְּרוּ comes from the root פרה, to be fruitful, to bear fruit (Davidson). Walter Brueggemann states, "this regal speech announces that the intent and mandates of creation are operative in this new creation",⁶ but Gerhard von Rad still wants to know: "Under these altered conditions, did the first command of creation, 'be fruitful' still hold? Did the creature who had fallen from G-d's first estate still have G-d's will on its side?" Yes, he concludes, answering his own question, "G-d still wills procreation and increase of humanity."⁷ Iain Provan goes further and explains that "G-d delights in the multiplication of humanity and of the rest of His creatures - He commands it and He ensures its continuance throughout Genesis. After the flood, we are specifically told that everything else that G-d says must be understood in the context of the blessing of fertility."⁸ More of that later, but now let's return to Noah's position.

Noah stands as the new Adam and has been re-given the creation mandate: "the ruling human is entrusted with a fresh rule."⁹ This is the third time that HaShem has blessed mankind (see 1:28 and 5:2) and "the third time man has been told to 'be fruitful and multiply.'"¹⁰ Yet, "although Noah is in some sense a new Adam ... the world is no new Eden"¹¹ and HaShem has already admitted that "the devisings of man's mind are evil from his youth" (B'resheet 8:21, NJPS). No sooner has Noah offered sacrifices, been given the Noachide Laws and the rainbow sign of the covenant, than he plants a vineyard, drinks too much wine and gets drunk. See the echo: in Adam's case we go from the garden, through sin, to nakedness and shame; in Noah's case the journey runs from the new creation, through sin, to nakedness and shame. Noah, it would seem, isn't the answer and the following incident of the Tower of Babel confirms that left to himself, mankind as a whole isn't the answer either.

Nevertheless, HaShem starts again. The call of Avram in parashat Lech L'cha includes HaShem's promises: "I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great ... and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you" (12:2-3, NJPS). That sounds quite similar to the "be fruitful and multiply ... bringing order among the nations" mandate; once again one man is chosen as HaShem makes clear: "I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the L-RD by doing what is just and right, in order that the L-RD may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him" (18:19, ESV), being the source of blessing and order to the nations. As the offspring of Abraham, Israel too takes up the mandate after being through the water of the Reed Sea and arriving at Sinai - "If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Shemot 19:5-6, ESV) - but almost immediately sins in the matter of the calf. The prophet brings HaShem's scathing comment: "The house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes but rejected My rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and My Sabbaths they greatly profaned" (Ezekiel 20:13, ESV).

When we wind forward to Yeshua, He too is given the mandate. See how He uses the language of fruitfulness: "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:8, ESV). He tells the disciples that this is the very reason they have been chosen: "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide>" (v. 16, ESV). The disciples bear fruit by obeying HaShem's commandments and being faithful to Yeshua. Instead of Adam, Noah and Abraham having children, Yeshua's life is reproduced in His disciples - "Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit" (v. 5, ESV) - who are no longer physical descendants. Look again at the Great Commission and see if you can hear the creation mandate: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV). There it is: bearing fruit, multiplying and bringing order. The object being multiplied is no longer simply biological human beings. It is disciples - people being recreated in the image of Yeshua.

Let's go back to the original mandate and review what is involved: fruitfulness, mankind is to increase and fill the earth; multiplication, HaShem's image - in whom all mankind was created - is to spread through the earth so that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the L-RD as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9, ESV); dominion, mankind is to exercise wise rule and order over creation. But here's the difference: Yeshua doesn't merely continue Adam's mandate. Yeshua completes a mandate that Adam received, that Noah received again, that Abraham and Israel received in covenantal form - and which finally reaches its goal in the resurrected Messiah and the new humanity created in Him.

At each stage, when HaShem re-launches His mission to bring not just the physical world but the human world into order and obedience to His word, there is rejoicing. Creation itself rejoices because it glimpses a sign of its redemption; mankind rejoices for it senses the rightness of HaShem's action and longs to return to the garden; the heavenly host rejoices as they see once again the hand of HaShem at work. He has not only not given up, but continues His work among His people unabated. This is the hope we have: that He is absolutely committed to finishing His plan and purpose in every detail. For us as individual followers of Yeshua, we can say with Rav Sha'ul, "that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Yeshua the Messiah" (Philippians 1:6, ESV). That's a promise!

1. - Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2003), page 175.

2. - Laurence A. Turner, Genesis - Readings: A New Biblical Commentary, 2nd Ed., (Sheffield, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009), page 45.

3. - Terence Fretheim, "Genesis" in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary, Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 80.

4. - Robin Scroggs, The Last Adam - A Study in Pauline Anthropology, (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1966), page 12.

5. - James McKeown, Genesis, Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), page 67.

6. - Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation, (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1982), page 82.

7. - Gerhard von Rad, Genesis Old Testament Library, (London, SCM Press, 1972), page 131.

8. - Iain Provan, Discovering Genesis: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), page 119.

9. - Brueggemann, page 83.

10. - Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary I, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1987), page 192.

11. - Fretheim, page 80.

Further Study: Psalm 57:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:4-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Application: Now is the moment to look around you, to recognise the times in which we are living, and to rejoice in all the good things that HaShem is doing, gradually bringing together everything in Messiah Yeshua - both for the whole of creation and for us personally. That is the hope He has laid out before us; "Let us rejoice and be glad, giving the glory to Him!" (Revelation 19:7).

Comment - 11:18 11Oct26 Janet Gray: Amen 📯...Isaiah 55:11...📯

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© Jonathan Allen, 2026

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