Genesis 1:22
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים לֵאמֹר פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הַמַּיִם בַּיַּמִּים וְהָעוֹף יִרֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹהִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֙יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
καὶ ηὐλόγησεν αὐτὰ ὁ θεὸς λέγων Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε, καὶ πληρώσατε τὰ ὕδατα ἐν ταῖς θαλάσσαις, καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ πληθυνέσθωσαν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Benedixitque eis, dicens: Crescite, et multiplicamini, et replete aquas maris: avesque multiplicentur super terram.
Y Dios los bendijo diciendo: Fructificad y multiplicad, y henchid las aguas en los mares, y las aves se multipliquen en la tierra.
Then God blessed them and said, “ Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
A blessing follows, in direct speech: three chained plural imperatives — be fruitful, multiply, fill — addressed to the creatures of the waters, and a third-person jussive for the birds. The grammar thus distinguishes the two addressees.
Key words
- y.Va.rekh ("he blessed", H1288) — piel (intensive) narrative: "and he blessed".
- pe.Ru ("be fruitful", H6509) — plural imperative.
- re.Vu ("multiply", H7235) — plural imperative.
- mil.'U ("fill", H4390) — plural imperative.
- i.ya.Mim ("seas", H3220) — plural: "in the seas".
What the text says
The narrative chain continues with y.Va.rekh ("he blessed", H1288), a verb in the piel — the stem the provided morphology calls intensive — and in the narrative form: "and then he blessed". The object is again pronominal ("them", with the object marker H0853), and the speech is introduced by Mor ("saying", H0559) in the infinitive, the formula "saying".
The blessing consists of three qal imperatives, masculine plural, tagged "command · you all": pe.Ru ("be fruitful", H6509), re.Vu ("multiply", H7235) and mil.'U ("fill", H4390). The third takes object and place: "fill the waters in the seas", with Ma.yim ("waters", H4325) and i.ya.Mim ("seas", H3220), both plural. The birds, by contrast, do not receive a second-person order: the verb shifts to the third-person jussive — "let him…" — with Yi.rev ("let it multiply", H7235), the same verb as re.Vu in another form: "and let the birds multiply on the earth", with 'A.retz ("earth", H0776). A direct command for the water creatures, a third-person wish for the birds.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate as provided opens "Benedixitque eis, dicens" without naming the subject, while the Hebrew writes 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430), the LXX ὁ θεός, the RV1909 "Dios", and the BSB "God". In "fill the waters in the seas", the LXX (ἐν ταῖς θαλάσσαις) and the RV1909 ("en los mares") keep preposition and plural; the Vulgate reduces it to a singular genitive, "replete aquas maris" ("fill the waters of the sea"), and the BSB also uses a genitive, in the plural ("the waters of the seas"). The Hebrew imperative/jussive contrast is mirrored in the LXX with imperatives (Αὐξάνεσθε, πληθύνεσθε, πληρώσατε) and a third-person imperative for the birds (πληθυνέσθωσαν), and in the Vulgate with "Crescite… multiplicamini… replete" and the subjunctive "multiplicentur".
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.