And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 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. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. – Genesis 9:1-3
The command God had given to Adam (Gen 1:28-30) is now here repeated for both Noah and his children. In a possible typological theme, it is seen that God makes the covenant once with the head and then again with the family (Gen 6:18; 9:9).
Again the command is to be fruitful and multiple. In the New Testament Christ would say “make disciples” (Matt 18:19). Though God certainly gave an imperative, He followed it up with declarative fact on the role of man with creation. Man has reigned over all the earth since creation and the fall did not change that. Creation is subject to futility on the revelation of hope (Rom 8:19).