KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
WORDS OF GOD IN RED
This verse is part of the creation story.
To get what Genesis 1:22 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “And God” | אֱלֹהִ֖ים | Gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative | God |
| “blessed” | וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ | To kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit); also (by euphemism) to curse (God or the king, as treason) | blessed |
| “them, saying,” | לֵאמֹ֑ר | To say (used with great latitude) | saying |
| “Be fruitful,” | פְּר֣וּ | To bear fruit (literally or figuratively) | fruitful |
| “and multiply,” | וּרְב֗וּ | To increase (in whatever respect) | multiply |
| “and fill” | וּמִלְא֤וּ | To fill or (intransitively) be full of, in a wide application (literally and figuratively) | fill |
| “the waters” | הַמַּ֙יִם֙ | Water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen | waters |
| “in the seas,” | בַּיַּמִּ֔ים | A sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea; sometimes a large river, or an artifical basin; locally, the west, or (rarely) the south | seas |
| “and let fowl” | וְהָע֖וֹף | A bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectively | let fowl |
| “multiply” | יִ֥רֶב | To increase (in whatever respect) | multiply |
| “in the earth.” | בָּאָֽרֶץ׃ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | earth |
See Genesis 1:22 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
• Genesis creation narrative Wikipedia Article
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.