Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 1:28

28. And God blessed them , and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth , and subdue it, and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea, and over the Fowl of the Air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth.

Having blessed them with excellent natures, and heavenly Gifts and Graces, he further blesseth them, with a special and temporal blessing expressed in the following words.

With inhabitants to be begotten by you. Quest. Whether this be a command obliging all men to Marriage and Procreation? So the Hebrew Doctors think. It may be thus resolved. 1. It is a command obliging all men so far as not to suffer the extinction of mankind: Thus it did absolutely bind Adam and Eve, as also Noah and his Sons and their Wives after the Flood. 2. It doth not oblige every particular person to Marry, as appears both from the example of the Lord Jesus, who lived and died in an unmarried state, and from his commendation of those who made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God, Matth. 19. 12. And from St. Pauls approbation of Virginity, 1 Cor. 7. 1, 8, 26, 27, 32, &c. 3. It is here rather a promise or benediction than a command, as appears both from v. 22. where the same words are applyed to the brute Beasts, who are not subject to a command; and because if this were a command, it would equally oblige every man to exercise dominion over Fishes and Fowls, &c. which is absurd. It is therefore a permission rather than a command, though it be expressed in the form of a command, as other permissions frequently are, as Gen. 2. 16. Deut. 14. 4.

Marginal references: Chap. 9. 1.; Heb. creepeth.