Knowing The Word in Genesis 9:1-7, Be Fruitful and Multiply

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. [This is God’s third blessing on mankind.] 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. [This reflects the animosity between man and animal that followed the fall. Animals die because of man’s sin.] 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. [Now man can eat meat.] 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. [Respect for life and for the giver of blood means abstaining from blood because in the sacrificial law animal blood is given by God for the atonement of human sin.] 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning [no sin shows greater contempt for life than homicide]: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. [There is a strict correspondence of punishment to the offense of murder. God specifically condemns all murder and institutes the death penalty for such. This also explains why human life is protected while animal life is not.]

7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”