The Population Bomb (Gen 6:1)

Adam’s Aftermath

¹ myriadization לָרֹ֖ב

In 1:28, ha-adam (the human beings) who had been created in 1:27 were blessed by God and instructed, “Reproduce, proliferate, and fill the earth,” just as the fish and birds were in 1:22 (except that the fish were told to fill “the water in the seas”). “Proliferate” there was רְב֛וּ r’vu, from the root רבה r-b-h ‘to be many’. It’s common to translate this word as “multiply,” as in the well-known King James translation of פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ, “Be fruitful, and multiply.”

Now — as the commentators like to explain — the human beings are doing just that, fulfilling the command they have been given in 1:28. But it isn’t quite so. KJV uses “to multiply” here as well, but the verb is slightly different. And “be fruitful” is somehow not included here. We will see that combination again three times at the end of the Flood story, in Gen 8:17 and 9:1 & 7; this one is different.