פָּרָא
pa.ra
be fruitful
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word פָּרָא, transliterated as pa.ra, is defined as "be fruitful." This concept is rooted in the realm of agriculture and land. The repeated occurrence of this word in the Bible, with 29 instances, underscores its significance in the Hebrew worldview. It emphasizes the idea of productivity and abundance in a given domain, likely referring to the land's capacity to produce food and support life. In its broad usage, pa.ra likely encompasses the idea of multiplication, increase, and abundance. This concept is tied to the fundamental human need for sustenance and the relationship between humans and their environment. The use of pa.ra to describe God's blessing in various passages suggests a divine involvement in creating and maintaining a fertile and productive world. The significance of pa.ra lies in its connection to the creation story in Genesis 1, where God commands Adam to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28, translation adjusted to match the Strong's number data). This command sets the tone for the biblical narrative, highlighting the importance of human stewardship and the natural world's potential for abundance. As a concept, pa.ra underscores the intersection of divine providence and human responsibility in maintaining the earth's fertility and ensuring the well-being of its inhabitants.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
29 total occurrences across the text
He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.
Psalms 128:3Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive plants around your table.
Isaiah 45:8Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it.
Isaiah 11:1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
Isaiah 17:6Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel.
Isaiah 32:12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
Jeremiah 3:16It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.
Jeremiah 23:3“I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
Ezekiel 19:10“ ‘Your mother was like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters. It was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
Ezekiel 36:11I will multiply man and animal on you. They will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before, and you will do better than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.
Genesis 1:22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 8:17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 9:1God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
Genesis 9:7Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.”
Genesis 17:6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.
Genesis 17:20As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
Genesis 26:22He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
Genesis 28:3May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,
Genesis 35:11God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.
Genesis 41:52The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Genesis 47:27Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
Genesis 48:4and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’
Genesis 49:22“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.
Genesis 49:22“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.
Exodus 1:7The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Exodus 23:30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
Leviticus 26:9“ ‘I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
Deuteronomy 29:18lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;