Be fruitful and multiply

The phrase "Be fruitful and multiply" functions as the central ideological pillar of the Republic of Gilead, a divine command drawn from Genesis that the regime weaponizes to enforce compulsory reproduction, control women's bodies, and legitimize its social hierarchy. It is recited during the monthly Ceremony, drilled into Handmaids at the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, and invoked in state propaganda about population resettlement, making fertility a sacred duty and failure a crime.

Biblical Origin and Ritual Use

The Commander reads the phrase aloud during the monthly Ceremony, the ritualized sexual encounter intended to impregnate the Handmaid. He opens the locked Bible and recites "the usual story, the usual stories. God to Adam, God to Noah. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" . This reading is preceded by the story of Rachel and Leah, in which Rachel cries, "Give me children, or else I die," and offers her maid Bilhah to Jacob—a direct scriptural model for the Handmaid system. The Commander's performance transforms the biblical text into a legal and liturgical justification for the sexual act that follows, framing it as obedience to God rather than coercion.

Indoctrination at the Red Center

At the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, Aunt Lydia and the other Aunts drill the Handmaids in this command as part of their daily training. The phrase is repeated during meals, prayers, and exercises, embedding it as a mantra of submission. The Handmaids are taught that their sole purpose is to bear children for the Commanders and their Wives, and that any failure to conceive is a personal and spiritual failure. The command is used to suppress dissent, as any woman who questions the system can be accused of defying God's will.

Propaganda and Population Policy

The regime extends the command beyond individual households to national policy. In news broadcasts, the announcer reports that "Resettlement of the Children of Ham is continuing on schedule" and that thousands are being transported to National Homeland One in North Dakota . The phrase "Be fruitful and multiply" underpins this forced relocation, framing ethnic cleansing as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The regime also uses it to justify the outlawing of birth control, abortion, and any form of reproductive choice, presenting fertility as a patriotic and religious obligation.

Enforcement and Consequences

The command is enforced through a brutal apparatus of surveillance and punishment. Handmaids who fail to conceive after two years are declared Unwomen and sent to the Colonies, where they die from toxic waste or starvation. Those who attempt to escape or resist are hanged on the Wall, their bodies displayed with placards reading "Gender Treachery" or other crimes. The phrase thus becomes a death sentence for those who cannot or will not comply, revealing the gap between the regime's pious rhetoric and its violent reality.

Thematic Significance

"Be fruitful and multiply" encapsulates the regime's fusion of religion, politics, and patriarchy. It reduces women to reproductive vessels, denies them autonomy, and transforms the most intimate act of conception into a state-controlled ritual. The phrase also exposes the regime's hypocrisy: the Commanders who recite it are often sterile themselves, and the Handmaids are forced to bear children for men who cannot father them. In this way, the command becomes a tool of power rather than a genuine expression of faith, a slogan that masks the regime's true aim: total control over life itself.