I’ve had a plan for a while.  I want to catologue all of the commands in scripture.  Just the commands.  For simplicity sake I am only going to look at imperative forms of verbs.  Let’s see what happens.

Gen 1:22 – “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill…”  The first command is to the swarming and flying stuff.  Last time I played golf after a rainstorm, the mosquitoes were still obeying.

Gen 1:26 – “Be fruitful, multiply, fill… subdue, and rule”  Same commands as before plus two.  Humanity gets the words cabash and radah (don’t mock the transliteration, this is a hobby).  Remember, in the ancient world there was always a chance that the wild things would eat you.  So far humanity has not been overcome by the other living creatures.  Although, the plague came really close.

Gen 4:23 – “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say…”  I won’t always point out imperatives coming from humans, but Lamech is a jerk.  He is the first human to order people around.  Essentially, “Hey wives, shut up and listen.  I kill who I want and take vengeance on who I want.  I am not to be messed with.”  Don’t leave your babies with Lamech.

Gen 6:21 – “Take with you every sort of food that is eaten.”  This is the first super-imperative.  See an imperative doesn’t need a pronoun.  If you look at kid on the sidewalk and say, “Come here”, it means the same thing as pointing at them and saying, “You, come here.”  The difference is emphasis.  A more literal translation is “You there! You take with you…”  God is telling Noah that it is really really important that he gather these food animals.  I wonder why?

Gen 7:1 – “Go into the ark.”  That’s a good command to follow.

Gen 8:16 – “Go out from the ark.”  Also a good command to follow.

Gen 9:1 – “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth…” Subdue and rule are missing, but v2 description of everything being scared of humans sort of implies it.  Still, something changed between Gen 1:26 and 9:1.  Oh yeah, God killed all the stuff because of human wickedness.  I guess fear is appropriate.

Gen 9:7 – “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth…” Same phrase as before.  The ESV I have feels like you need a note saying “you is plural”.  So was 9:1.  What’s going on is now that the human race has a reboot, God makes sure to be more direct (way more clear than sin crouching at doors with Cain in Gen 4).  In vv4-6, God sort of puts the fear of God into Noah and crew when it comes to murder.  Essentially, “People killing people is really bad, but don’t stop making more people.”

Gen 11:3, 4, 7 – I had never read these with this filter of who is issuing commands, but it is funny laid out like this:

“Come, let us make bricks” v3

“Come, let us build a city” v4

“Come, let us go down there and confuse their language” v7

God. Is. Boss.

On the grammar side of things, these aren’t true imperatives.  It is more of an invitation.  “Come with us” vs. “Hey!  Come with us.”

So there you have it.  All the commands in Genesis 1-11.  This is the wild west of the bible when God does whatever God wants and humans think they can too.  What really sticks out to me is that every time a human starts using imperatives, “Do what I say”, things end up badly.  God’s commands are creative and life saving.