Genesis 8:17

Summary

God commands Noah to bring out every living creature that is with him in the ark—birds, livestock, and creeping things—so that, once out, they will swarm, be fruitful, and multiply on the earth. The verse combines a direct imperative addressed to Noah with a chain of verbs describing what the animals themselves will subsequently do.

Key words

• chai.Yah ("animal", H2416C) — feminine singular noun, the general term for "living creature," governed by kol ("every", H3605) in construct, producing "every animal."
• 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause "which is with you," specifying that only the animals already in the ark are meant.
• hay.tze' ("bring out", H3318H) — Hiphil (causative) imperative, second person masculine singular, the core command: Noah is to cause the animals to go out.
• sha.re.Tzu ("they will swarm", H8317) — Qal sequential perfect, third person plural; opens a chain of consecutive verbs describing the animals' future action after leaving the ark.
• fa.Ru ("they will be fruitful", H6509) and ra.Vu ("they will multiply", H7235A) — both Qal sequential perfects, third person plural, continuing the same narrative chain begun by sha.re.Tzu.

What the text says

The sentence structure places a long compound subject—kol-ha.chai.Yah 'a.Sher-'i.te.Kha mi.kol-ba.Sar ("every animal that is with you, of all flesh")—before the verb, itemized further as ba.'of ("among the birds"), va.be.he.Mah ("among the livestock"), and ve.khol-ha.Re.mes ha.ro.Mes 'al-ha.'A.retz ("every creeping thing that creeps on the earth"). Only after this extended subject does the finite verb hay.tze' appear, an imperative directed at Noah alone. This word order (subject before verb, with the command coming late) emphasizes the totality and diversity of the creatures before specifying the action required of Noah.

The second half of the verse shifts grammatical subject from Noah to the animals themselves through three sequential perfects—sha.re.Tzu, fa.Ru, ra.Vu—each prefixed with the narrative ve. ("and"). This verb form typically continues a preceding command or intention, so the animals' swarming, fruitfulness, and multiplying are presented as the anticipated result of Noah's action, rather than as separate commands addressed to the animals. The Hebrew grammar therefore distinguishes one imperative (to Noah) from three consequential perfects (describing what follows), a distinction not always visible in translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final three Hebrean sequential perfects as plural imperatives, αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε ("increase and multiply"), and omits an equivalent for sha.re.Tzu ("swarm"). The Vulgate similarly uses imperative forms—ingredimini ("go forth"), crescite, multiplicamini—treating these clauses as direct commands to the creatures rather than as narrated consequences, as the Hebrew sequential perfects suggest. The LXX also compresses the Hebrew's threefold listing (ba.'of, va.be.he.Mah, ve.khol-ha.Re.mes) into a single genitive phrase, πᾶσα σὰρξ πετεινῶν ἕως κτηνῶν ("all flesh of birds to livestock"), differing from the Hebrew's parallel prepositional structure with bet ("among/in") repeated for each category.