What the Bible Says About the Meaning of Multiplication

Scripture

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:28-30

Genesis 9:1-3: ¹ And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
² The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.
³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Genesis 17:1-8: ¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
² “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
³ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”
⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Exodus 1:7-12: ⁷ But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
⁹ And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.
¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

Leviticus 26:9-10: ⁹ I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.
¹⁰ You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.

Deuteronomy 7:12-14: ¹² And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.
¹³ He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14: ¹ “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”
² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
⁷ “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.”
⁸ The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake.
⁹ The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.
¹⁰ And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
¹¹ And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
¹² The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
¹³ And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,
¹⁴ and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

2 Kings 4:1-7: ¹ Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
² And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”
³ Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
⁴ Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”
⁵ So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.
⁶ When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

2 Kings 4:42-44: ⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.”
⁴³ But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’”
⁴⁴ So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

2 Kings 17:13-15: ¹³ Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
¹⁴ But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
¹⁵ They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

Psalm 107:37-38: ³⁷ They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.
³⁸ By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their livestock diminish.

Isaiah 51:1-3: ¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.”
² Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.
³ For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Jeremiah 30:18-20: ¹⁸ “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be.”
¹⁹ Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate.
²⁰ Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them.

Ezekiel 36:8-11: ⁸ But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come.
⁹ For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.
¹⁰ And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt.
¹¹ And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Matthew 14:13-21: ¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
¹⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
¹⁸ He said, “Bring them here to me.”
¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Matthew 25:14-30: ¹⁴ “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
¹⁵ To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
¹⁶ He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
¹⁷ So also he who had received the two talents made two talents more.
¹⁸ But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
¹⁹ Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
²⁰ And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’
²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
²² And he also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,
²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
²⁴ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,
²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’
²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
²⁸ So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.
²⁹ For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mark 6:30-44: ³⁰ The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
³¹ And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
³² And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
³⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
³⁵ And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.
³⁶ Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.
³⁷ But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”
³⁸ And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
³⁹ Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.
⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
⁴¹ And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied.
⁴³ And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
⁴⁴ And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Luke 9:10-17: ¹⁰ On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.
¹¹ When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.
¹² Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.”
¹³ But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”
¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
¹⁵ And they did so, and had them all sit down.
¹⁶ And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
¹⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

John 6:1-14: ¹ After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
² And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
³ And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
⁵ Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
⁶ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.
¹² And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
¹³ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Acts 6:1-7: ¹ Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
⁵ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
⁶ They set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
⁷ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

2 Corinthians 9:10-11: ¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.