Translation
And ELOHIM blessed them and ELOHIM said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue
Go to footnote numberit, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves lightly and swiftly on the earth. (See comment below.)
Paraphrase
Then THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS enabled them to fulfill what He had planned for them, and THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS expressed this desire and enabling when He said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and
be the leader of it and exercise authority over and care for the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves lightly and swiftly on the earth. (See comment below.)
Footnotes
1
This word means “to bring into bondage, to dominate, to subdue, to press into obedient service, bring under subjection, force or keep under.” This is a very strong word. But once again it is tempered by the example we see in God himself and how He treats us. God’s desire was for humans and all of creation to reflect what God is like, therefore, as the leaders among God’s creation, we are to make sure that all of creation is fulfilling that role. We are to use the same tactics God uses (to the extent of our abilities) and follow God’s priorities as we encourage His creation to be a good reflection of His character.
GOD BLESSED MANKIND
God seems to have waited to bless anything until the first living beings were created – the fish and the birds (vs 22). Here we read the second time God blesses things and it is once again living things – mankind for sure and it is possible that land animals are also implied in the part that is similar to the fish and the birds.
The Hebrew words “bless, blessing, blessed” come from a root that means “to kneel.” The picture is that of a subject kneeling before a sovereign ruler and humbly receiving something good from that ruler. In order to be blessed by God we need to be humble. When we humble ourselves before God it is a form of praise; we are telling Him what He means to us and how great He is by our attitudes and our act of kneeling. Blessing God is closely related to praising God; they are parts of the same action.
God does not kneel before anyone, so how can we bless God? When we bless God we are still the ones kneeling, but we are now praising Him for what He has bestowed upon us, which will be an expression of His character. He is compassionate, He is trustworthy, He is gracious, and He will act in accordance with those attributes and others like them.
But there is another layer of meaning. We kneel before Him because He is all-powerful, and we are weak; He is capable, we are incapable; He is complete, we are incomplete. So when God blesses us, it is more than just something nice He says to us; it is an enduement of His enabling for us to accomplish what He is asking us to do. God does not command us to do something without granting us the ability, strength, and wisdom to fulfill it. In the challenges of your life remember that God never gives us a command or a task that He does not also equip us to fulfill; our job is to remain humble and obedient. In the case of the animals, God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, but He was the one that gave them the ability to fulfill the command.
What about the times when we “bless” others? We cannot bless anyone. When we pronounce a blessing on others, we are actually asking God to empower them and exhorting them to stay in a kneeling position before God.