Text: Leviticus 26:9 — "I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you."
OT Text Referred to: Genesis 1:28
Source: Anchor-Text Network — Genesis 1:28 (Beale, The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New Testament; Schnittjer, Old Testament Use of Old Testament)
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Gen 1:28 — The Adamic Commission
Significance: In the covenant-blessing section of Leviticus, God promises "I will... make you fruitful (pārâ) and multiply (rābâ) you" — the signature verb-pair of the Adamic commission, here recast as the covenantal reward for Torah obedience. What was an unconditional creation blessing in Gen 1:28 ("God blessed them") becomes, under the Sinai covenant, a conditional blessing flowing to the obedient corporate Adam. The fruitfulness mandate is thus woven into the Covenant longitudinal theme: faithfulness to the covenant brings the Edenic fruitfulness, while disobedience brings the curses that follow (Lev 26:14ff). The commission persists, but is now contingent on covenant fidelity. Because Israel proves unfaithful, the prophets later re-issue these same verbs to the regathered remnant (Jer 23:3; Ezek 36:11), and the trajectory finds its unconditional fulfillment in the Last Adam, who keeps the covenant perfectly and so secures the promised fruitfulness for his people.