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17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.(A)

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Chapter 9

Covenant with Noah. [a]God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 9:1 God reaffirms without change the original blessing and mandate of 1:28. In the Mesopotamian epic Atrahasis, on which the Genesis story is partly modeled, the gods changed their original plan by restricting human population through such means as childhood diseases, birth demons, and mandating celibacy among certain groups of women.

Yet you have made him little less than a god,[a]
    crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,(A)
    put all things at his feet:
All sheep and oxen,
    even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
    and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

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Footnotes

  1. 8:6 Little less than a god: Hebrew ‘elohim, the ordinary word for “God” or “the gods” or members of the heavenly court. The Greek version translated ‘elohim by “angel, messenger”; several ancient and modern versions so translate. The meaning seems to be that God created human beings almost at the level of the beings in the heavenly world. Hb 2:9, translating “for a little while,” finds the eminent fulfillment of this verse in Jesus Christ, who was humbled before being glorified, cf. also 1 Cor 15:27 where St. Paul applies to Christ the closing words of Ps 8:7.

16 [a]The heavens belong to the Lord,
    but he has given the earth to the children of Adam.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 115:16 The heavens: the Septuagint reads here “the heaven of heavens” or “the highest heavens,” i.e., above the firmament. See note on Ps 148:4.

And in your wisdom have established humankind
    to rule the creatures produced by you,(A)

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