Genesis 1:28

The Blessing and the Command

28. replenish The word is the same as that used in Genesis 1:22 of the fishes, "be fruitful, and multiply, and fillthe waters."

and subdue it A strong word, denoting subjugation to power. Man's authority over the creatures of the earth confers upon him responsibility for the exercise of his powers. Supremacy over the fishes, the birds, and the beasts, will require courage, forethought, skill, observation, and judgement. The blessing, therefore, of "fruitfulness" is incomplete, until reinforced by the commission so to exercise the faculties as to ensure intellectual growth. In this connexion, compare Ray Lankester ("Rede Lecture, 1905"), "What we call the will or volition of Man … has become a power in nature, an imperium in imperio, which has profoundly modified not only Man's own history, but that of the whole living world, and the face of the planet on which he lives."