What does פָּרָה (pārāh) mean in the Bible?
To be fruitful is to produce fruit or increase, with the passage identifying the kind of growth. Genesis speaks of living creatures being fruitful and multiplying under God's blessing.
Hebrew · H6509
פָּרָה
To be fruitful is to produce fruit or increase, with the passage identifying the kind of growth. Genesis speaks of living creatures being fruitful and multiplying under God's blessing.
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פָּרָהH6509
Pronunciationpārāh
What does פָּרָה (pārāh) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for פָּרָה (H6509) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H6509?
The BSB source-word alignment has 29 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Be fruitful (5), fruitful (3), and be fruitful (2), and make you fruitful (2), a fruitful (1).
Where does פָּרָה (pārāh) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (15), Isaiah (4), Exodus (2), Ezekiel (2).
What This Word Actually Means
To be fruitful is to produce fruit or increase, with the passage identifying the kind of growth. Genesis speaks of living creatures being fruitful and multiplying under God's blessing. After the flood, God addresses Noah and his sons with a renewed call to fill the earth. Joseph later says God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction when naming his second son.
These witnesses join living increase with received blessing and particular family histories. They do not make a person's number of children a measure of righteousness or guarantee fertility to everyone. Fruitfulness language also occurs in plant pictures and wider promises. Read each recipient and setting rather than gathering every use into one prediction about a reader's success.
How the Bible Uses It
Creation blessing, the post-flood commission, and Joseph's acknowledgment of God show fruitfulness as concrete increase within distinct recipients and circumstances, including a land remembered for affliction.
- Gen.1.22
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
God blesses the sea creatures and birds with fruitful increase, locating the command within the goodness and filling of His created world.
- Gen.9.1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
The blessing addresses Noah and his sons after the flood and calls them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
- Gen.41.52
And the second son he named Ephraim, saying, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Joseph names his second son while crediting God for fruitfulness in the land of affliction, preserving both provision and his difficult history.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItBe fruitful5×Genesis 1:22, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:1, Genesis 9:7
fruitful3×Genesis 17:6, Psalms 105:24, Ezekiel 19:10
and be fruitful2×Genesis 8:17, Ezekiel 36:11
and make you fruitful2×Genesis 28:3, Leviticus 26:9
a fruitful1×Genesis 49:22
and became fruitful1×Genesis 47:27
and increase1×Jeremiah 3:16
and we will be fruitful1×Genesis 26:22
for the fruitful1×Isaiah 32:12
has made me fruitful1×Genesis 41:52
I will make him fruitful1×Genesis 17:20
I will make you fruitful1×Genesis 48:4
is a fruitful1×Genesis 49:22
may sprout1×Isaiah 45:8
on its fruitful1×Isaiah 17:6
that bears1×Deuteronomy 29:18
were fruitful1×Exodus 1:7
where they will be fruitful1×Jeremiah 23:3
will be like a fruitful1×Psalms 128:3
will bear fruit1×Isaiah 11:1
you become fruitful1×Exodus 23:30
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 1:22פְּר֣וּtoBe fruitfulVerb - Qal - Imperative - masculine pluralGenesis 1:28פְּר֥וּtoBe fruitfulVerb - Qal - Imperative - masculine pluralGenesis 8:17וּפָר֥וּtoand be fruitfulConjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common pluralGenesis 9:1פְּר֥וּtoBe fruitfulVerb - Qal - Imperative - masculine pluralGenesis 9:7פְּר֣וּtobe fruitfulVerb - Qal - Imperative - masculine pluralGenesis 17:6וְהִפְרֵתִ֤יtofruitfulConjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singularGenesis 17:20וְהִפְרֵיתִ֥יtoI will make him fruitfulConjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singularGenesis 26:22וּפָרִ֥ינוּtoand we will be fruitfulConjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common pluralGenesis 28:3וְיַפְרְךָ֖toand make you fruitfulConjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive imperfect - third person masculine singular | second person masculine singularGenesis 35:11פְּרֵ֣הtoBe fruitfulVerb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 1:22
Aligned rows29
Books represented8
Genesis15Exodus2Leviticus1Deuteronomy1Psalms2Isaiah4Jeremiah2Ezekiel2
Source forms
וּפָר֥וּ2xū·p̄ā·rūGenesis 8:17, Jeremiah 23:3
פְּר֣וּ2xpə·rūGenesis 1:22, Genesis 9:7
פְּר֥וּ2xpə·rūGenesis 1:28, Genesis 9:1
הִפְרַ֥נִי1xhip̄·ra·nîGenesis 41:52
וְהִפְרֵיתִ֥י1xwə·hip̄·rê·ṯîGenesis 17:20
וְהִפְרֵיתִ֣י1xwə·hip̄·rê·ṯîLeviticus 26:9
וְהִפְרֵתִ֤י1xwə·hip̄·rê·ṯîGenesis 17:6
וַיֶּ֣פֶר1xway·ye·p̄erPsalms 105:24
Parsing patterns
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural4xGenesis 1:22, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:1, Genesis 9:7
Verb - Qal - Participle - feminine singular4xPsalms 128:3, Isaiah 17:6, Isaiah 32:12, Ezekiel 19:10
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular3xGenesis 17:6, Genesis 17:20, Leviticus 26:9
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural3xGenesis 8:17, Jeremiah 23:3, Ezekiel 36:11
Verb - Qal - Participle - feminine singular construct2xGenesis 49:22
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive imperfect - third person masculine singular | second person masculine singular1xGenesis 28:3
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular1xPsalms 105:24
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect - third person masculine plural1xIsaiah 45:8
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Handle childlessness with care rather than assigning a hidden spiritual cause.
- Avoid promising numerical expansion to a church from a household-specific witness.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim family size proves righteousness; these contexts contain no such measure of acceptance before God.
- Do not guarantee fertility or expansion to every believer; the selected statements address particular recipients.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Denotes productive growth from within; used of both biological fertility and covenant blessing's multiplication through generations.
Strong'sH6509
Lexical occurrences29 versesWord forms1 form15 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkGenesis 1:26-28Source Gloss
to bear fruit (literally or figuratively)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Denotes productive growth from within; used of both biological fertility and covenant blessing's multiplication through generations.
to bear fruit (literally or figuratively) BDB: bear fruit Usage: bear, bring forth (fruit), (be, cause to be, make) fruitful, grow, increase.
Grammatical Forms
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Form groups1Aligned forms15
Qalbasic active stem — the word in its most common, direct sense15×
Participle activeDeut 29:17 · Ezek 19:10 · Gen 49:22 · Isa 17:6 · Isa 32:12 · Ps 128:37×
Sequential imperfectGen 1:22 · Gen 1:28 · Gen 9:1 · Gen 9:7 · Gen 35:115×
ImperfectExod 23:30 · Isa 11:12×
PerfectExod 1:71×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Divine command for humanity to multiply and fill the earth
Renewal of blessing to Noah's descendants to be fruitful and multiply
Land's abundant production of grain during years of plenty in Egypt
Israelites multiply and become numerous, fulfilling the ancestral blessing
God's promise to Jacob that he will be fruitful and multiply into nations
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 29 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
פָּרָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Joseph's words preserve something a quick success reading would remove: the land in which he becomes fruitful is also the land of his affliction. His son's birth gives him a reason to acknowledge God's generosity without declaring the earlier wrongs good or forgotten in every respect. Creation and the post-flood commission likewise speak to definite recipients in the story of human and creaturely life.
These contexts do not authorize ranking households by their size or questioning the faith of people who cannot have children. The useful teaching movement is from actual increase to grateful recognition of God's gift, while preserving the limits of each witness. Wider biblical fruit imagery may enrich a canonical discussion, but it should not erase these passages' concrete family and creation settings.
Anchor passage
Gen.41.52
Doctrinal connections
- Genesis 1:21-22 locates fruitful creaturely increase within God's good creation and blessing.
- Genesis 9:1 renews the call to human increase for Noah's household after the flood.
- Genesis 41:50-52 joins Joseph's received family gifts with his memory of affliction.
- Genesis 17:4-8 gives Abraham a particular covenant promise of nations and royal descendants.
- Genesis 26:22-24 links Isaac's room in the land with gratitude and renewed assurance from God.
- Exodus 1:7-9 places Israel's great increase immediately before a new ruler's fearful oppression.
The Hebrew comparison supplies bear fruit, literally or figuratively. The direct Joseph row says has made me fruitful; the context identifies God as the giver without making that family event a universal fertility promise.
From Old to New Testament
New Testament language about fruitful discipleship invites thematic comparison but is not identical to the biological increase described in these Genesis witnesses. Union with Christ and faithful obedience must not be reduced to family size or numerical ministry growth.