Text: Jeremiah 23:3 — "I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply"
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): Redemptive-Historical Progression, Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Gen 1:28 — The Adamic Commission
Significance: Genesis 1:28 issues the creation mandate to "be fruitful (pārâ) and multiply (rābâ) and fill the earth," the durable verb-pair that becomes the canonical signature of the Adamic commission. Jeremiah, prophesying after the failure and scattering of the corporate Adam (Israel exiled for the sins of her shepherds, 23:1-2), reaches for these very verbs: the LORD will gather "the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them" and return them to their pasture "where they will be fruitful and multiply." The exilic curse — un-creation, dispersion from the land Adam was to fill — is reversed by a sovereign reissue of the original blessing-imperative to the regathered remnant. The commission did not lapse with Israel's apostasy; God re-speaks it, and the oracle moves immediately to the "righteous Branch" of David (23:5-6), locating the commission's fulfillment in the messianic King. This points forward to its consummation in Christ the Last Adam, through whom the redeemed are gathered from every nation and finally fill the new creation (Rev 7:9).