This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God's likeness.
KJV
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Commentary
Commentary
This chapter is the only authentic history extant of the first age
of the world from the creation to the flood, containing (according
to the verity of the Hebrew text) 1656 years, as may easily be
computed by the ages of the patriarchs, before they begat that son
through whom the line went down to Noah. This is one of
those which the apostle calls "endless genealogies"
( 1 Tim. i. 4 ),
for Christ, who was the end of the Old-Testament law, was
also the end of the Old-Testament genealogies; towards him
they looked, and in him they centered. The genealogy here recorded
is inserted briefly in the pedigree of our Saviour
( Luke iii. 36-38 ),
and is of great use to show that Christ was the
"seed of the woman" that was promised. We have here an account,
I. Concerning Adam, ver. 1-5 .
II. Seth, ver. 6-8 .
III. Enos, ver. 9-11 .
IV. Cainan, ver. 12-14 .
V. Mahalaleel, ver. 15-17 .
VI. Jared, ver. 18-20 .
VII. Enoch, ver. 21-24 .
VIII. Methuselah, ver. 25-27 .
IX. Lamech and his son Noah, ver. 28-32 .
All scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is
profitable, though not all alike profitable.
1 This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day
that God created man, in the likeness
of God made he him;
2 Male and
female created he them; and blessed
them, and called their name Adam,
in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived a hundred and
thirty years, and begat a son in his
own likeness, after his image; and
called his name Seth:
4 And the
days of Adam after he had begotten
Seth were eight hundred years: and
he begat sons and daughters:
5 And
all the days that Adam lived were
nine hundred and thirty
years: and he died.
The first words of the chapter are the title
or argument of the whole chapter: it is the
book of the generations of Adam; it is the list
or catalogue of the posterity of Adam, not of
all, but only of the holy seed who were the
substance thereof ( Isa. vi. 13 ),
and of whom,
as concerning the flesh, Christ came ( Rom. ix. 5 ),
the names, ages, and deaths, of those
that were the successors of the first Adam in
the custody of the promise, and the ancestors
of the second Adam. The genealogy begins
with Adam himself. Here is,
I. His creation, v. 1, 2 ,
where we have a
brief rehearsal of what was before at large
related concerning the creation of man. This
is what we have need frequently to hear of
and carefully to acquaint ourselves with.
Observe here,
1. That God created man. Man
is not his own maker, therefore he must not
be his own master; but the Author of his
being must be the director of his motions
and the centre of them.
2. That there was
a day in which God created man. He was
not from eternity, but of yesterday; he was
not the first-born, but the junior of the creation.
3. That God made him in his own
likeness, righteous and holy, and therefore,
undoubtedly, happy. Man's nature resembled
the divine nature more than that of any
of the creatures of this lower world.
4. That God
created them male and female
( v. 2 ),
for their mutual comfort as well as for the preservation
and increase of their kind. Adam
and Eve were both made immediately by the
hand of God, both made in God's likeness;
and therefore between the sexes there is not
that great distance and inequality which
some imagine.
5. That God blessed them.
It is usual for parents to bless their children;
so God, the common Father, blessed his.
But earthly parents can only beg a blessing;
it is God's prerogative to command it. It
refers chiefly to the blessing of increase, not
excluding other blessings.
6. That he called
their name Adam. Adam signifies earth, red
earth. Now,
(1.) God gave him this name.
Adam had himself named the rest of the
creatures, but he must not choose his own
name, lest he should assume some glorious
pompous title. But God gave him a name
which would be a continual memorandum to
him of the meanness of his original, and
oblige him to look unto the rock whence he
was hewn and the hole of the pit whence he
was digged, Isa. li. 1 .
Those have little reason
to be proud who are so near akin to dust.
(2.) He gave this name both to the man and
to the woman. Being at first one by nature,
and afterwards one by marriage, it was fit
they should both have the same name, in
token of their union. The woman is of the
earth earthy as well as the man.
II. The birth of his son Seth, v. 3 .
He was born in the hundred and thirtieth year
of Adam's life; and probably the murder of
Abel was not long before. Many other sons
and daughters were born to Adam, besides
Cain and Abel, before this; but no notice is
taken of them, because an honourable mention
must be made of his name only in whose
loins Christ and the church were. But that
which is most observable here concerning
Seth is that Adam begat him in his own likeness,
after his image. Adam was made in the
image of God; but, when he was fallen and
corrupt, he begat a son in his own image,
sinful and defiled, frail, mortal, and miserable,
like himself; not only a man like himself,
consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself, guilty and obnoxious, degenerate
and corrupt. Even the man after God's own
heart owns himself conceived and born in sin, Ps. li. 5 .
This was Adam's own likeness,
the reverse of that divine likeness in which
Adam was made; but, having lost it himself,
he could not convey it to his seed. Note,
Grace does not run in the blood, but corruption
does. A sinner begets a sinner, but a
saint does not beget a saint.
III. His age and death. He lived, in all,
nine hundred and thirty years, and then he
died, according to the sentence passed upon
him, To dust thou shalt return. Though he
did not die in the day he ate forbidden fruit,
yet in that very day he became mortal.
Then he began to die; his whole life afterwards
was but a reprieve, a forfeited condemned
life; nay, it was a wasting dying life:
he was not only like a criminal sentenced, but
as one already crucified, that dies slowly and
by degrees.
6 And Seth lived a hundred and
five years, and begat Enos:
7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight
hundred and seven years, and begat
sons and daughters:
8 And all the
days of Seth were nine hundred
and twelve years: and he died.
9 And Enos lived ninety years, and
begat Cainan:
10 And Enos lived
after he begat Cainan eight hundred
and fifteen years, and begat sons and
daughters:
11 And all the days of
Enos were nine hundred and five
years: and he died.
12 And Cainan
lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
13 And Cainan lived after
he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred
and forty years, and begat sons and
daughters:
14 And all the days of
Cainan were nine hundred and ten
years: and he died.
15 And Mahalaleel
lived sixty and five years,
and begat Jared:
16 And Mahalaleel
lived after he begat Jared eight hundred
and thirty years, and begat sons
and daughters:
17 And all the days
of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
18 And Jared lived a hundred
sixty and two years, and he begat
Enoch:
19 And Jared lived after
he begat Enoch eight hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters:
20 And all the days of Jared were nine
hundred sixty and two years: and
he died.
We have here all that the Holy Ghost
thought fit to leave upon record concerning
five of the patriarchs before the flood, Seth,
Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared. There
is nothing observable concerning any of these
particularly, though we have reason to think
they were men of eminence, both for prudence
and piety, in their day: but in general,
I. Observe how largely and expressly their
generations are recorded. This matter, one
would think, might have been delivered in
fewer words; but it is certain that there is
not one idle word in God's books, whatever
there is in men's. It is thus plainly set down,
1. To make it easy and intelligible to the
meanest capacity. When we are informed
how old they were when they begat such a
son, and how many years they lived afterwards,
a very little skill in arithmetic will
enable a man to tell how long they lived in
all; yet the Holy Ghost sets down the sum
total, for the sake of those that have not even
so much skill as this.
2. To show the pleasure
God takes in the names of his people.
We found Cain's generation numbered in
haste
( ch. iv. 18 ),
but this account of the holy
seed is enlarged upon, and given in words at
length, and not in figures; we are told how
long those lived that lived in God's fear, and
when those died that died in his favour; but
as for others it is no matter. The memory of
the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked
shall rot.
II. Their life is reckoned by days
( v. 8 ): All the days of Seth, and so of the rest, which
intimates the shortness of the life of man
when it is at the longest, and the quick revolution
of our times on earth. If they
reckoned by days, surely we must reckon by
hours, or rather make that our frequent
prayer
( Ps. xc. 12 ), Teach us to number our days.
III. Concerning each of them, except
Enoch, it is said, and he died. It is implied
in the numbering of the years of their life
that their life, when those years were numbered
and finished, came to an end; and yet
it is still repeated, and he died, to show that
death passed upon all men without exception,
and that it is good for us particularly to observe
and improve the deaths of others for
our own edification. Such a one was a strong
healthful man, but he died; such a one was
a great and rich man, but he died; such a
one was a wise politic man, but he died; such
a one was a very good man, perhaps a very
useful man, but he died, &c.
IV. That which is especially observable is
that they all lived very long; not one of them
died till he had seen the revolution of almost
eight hundred years, and some of them lived
much longer, a great while for an immortal
soul to be imprisoned in a house of clay.
The present life surely was not to them such
a burden as commonly it is now, else they
would have been weary of it; nor was the
future life so clearly revealed then as it is
now under the gospel, else they would have
been impatient to remove to it: long life to
the pious patriarchs was a blessing and made
them blessings.
1. Some natural causes may
be assigned for their long life in those first
ages of the world. It is very probable that
the earth was more fruitful, that the productions
of it were more strengthening, that the
air was more healthful, and that the influences
of the heavenly bodies were more benign,
before the flood, than afterwards. Though
man was driven out of paradise, yet the earth
itself was then paradisiacal--a garden in
comparison with its present wilderness-state:
and some think that their great knowledge
of the creatures, and of their usefulness both
for food and medicine, together with their
sobriety and temperance, contributed much
to it; yet we do not find that those who were
intemperate, as many were
( Luke xvii. 27 ),
were as short-lived as intemperate men generally
are now.
2. It must chiefly be resolved
into the power and providence of God. He
prolonged their lives, both for the more
speedy replenishing of the earth and for the
more effectual preservation of the knowledge
of God and religion, then, when there was
no written word, but tradition was the channel
of its conveyance. All the patriarchs
here, except Noah, were born before Adam
died; so that from him they might receive a
full and satisfactory account of the creation,
paradise, the fall, the promise, and those divine
precepts which concerned religious worship
and a religious life: and, if any mistake
arose, they might have recourse to him while
he lived, as to an oracle, for the rectifying of
it, and after his death to Methuselah, and
others, that had conversed with him: so great
was the care of Almighty God to preserve in
his church the knowledge of his will and the
purity of his worship.
21 And Enoch lived sixty and five
years, and begat Methuselah:
22 And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah three hundred
years, and begat sons and daughters:
23 And all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with God:
and he was not; for God took him.
The accounts here run on for several generations
without any thing remarkable, or any
variation but of the names and numbers; but
at length there comes in one that must not be passed over so, of whom special notice
must be taken, and that is Enoch, the seventh
from Adam: the rest, we may suppose, did
virtuously, but he excelled them all, and was
the brightest star of the patriarchal age. It
is but little that is recorded concerning him;
but this little is enough to make his name
great, greater than the name of the other
Enoch, who had a city called by his name.
Here are two things concerning him:--
I. His gracious conversation in this world,
which is twice spoken of: Enoch walked with
God after he begat Methuselah ( v. 22 ),
and again, Enoch walked with God, v. 24 .
Observe,
1. The nature of his religion and the scope
and tenour of his conversation: he walked
with God, which denotes,
(1.) True religion;
what is godliness, but walking with God?
The ungodly and profane are without God in
the world, they walk contrary to him: but
the godly walk with God, which presupposes
reconciliation to God, for two cannot walk
together except they be agreed ( Amos iii. 3 ),
and includes all the parts and instances of a
godly, righteous, and sober life. To walk
with God is to set God always before us, and
to act as those that are always under his eye.
It is to live a life of communion with God
both in ordinances and providences. It is to
make God's word our rule and his glory our
end in all our actions. It is to make it our
constant care and endeavour in every thing
to please God, and nothing to offend him.
It is to comply with his will, to concur with
his designs, and to be workers together with
him. It is to be followers of him as dear
children. (2.) Eminent religion. He was
entirely dead to this world, and did not only
walk after God, as all good men do, but he
walked with God, as if he were in heaven already.
He lived above the rate, not only of
other men, but of other saints: not only good
in bad times, but the best in good times.
(3.) Activity in promoting religion among
others. Executing the priest's office is called walking before God, 1 Sam. ii. 30, 35 ,
and see Zech. iii. 7 .
Enoch, it should seem, was
a priest of the most high God, and like Noah,
who is likewise said to walk with God, he
was a preacher of righteousness, and prophesied
of Christ's second coming. Jude 14 , Behold, the Lord cometh with his holy myriads. Now the Holy Spirit, instead of saying, Enoch lived, says, Enoch walked with God; for it is
the life of a good man to walk with God.
This was,
[1.] The business of Enoch's life,
his constant care and work; while others
lived to themselves and the world, he lived to
God.
[2.] It was the joy and support of
his life. Communion with God was to him
better than life itself. To me to live is Christ, Phil. i. 21 .
2. The date of his religion. It is said
( v. 21 ), he lived sixty-five years, and begat
Methuselah; but
( v. 22 ) he walked with God
after he begat Methuselah, which intimates
that he did not begin to be eminent for piety
till about that time; at first he walked but
as other men. Great saints arrive at their
eminence by degrees.
3. The continuance of his religion: he
walked with God three hundred years, as long
as he continued in this world. The hypocrite
will not pray always; but the real saint that
acts from a principle, and makes religion his
choice, will persevere to the end, and walk
with God while he lives, as one that hopes to
live for ever with him, Ps. civ. 33 .
II. His glorious removal to a better world.
As he did not live like the rest, so he did not
die like the rest
( v. 24 ): He was not, for God
took him; that is, as it is explained
( Heb. xi. 5 ), He was translated that he should not
see death, and was not found, because God had
translated him. Observe,
1. When he was thus translated.
(1.) What time of his life. It was when he had
lived but three hundred and sixty-five years
(a year of years), which, as men's ages went
then, was in the midst of his days; for there
was none of the patriarchs before the flood
that did not more than double that age. But
why did God take him so soon? Surely, because
the world, which had now grown corrupt,
was not worthy of him, or because he
was so much above the world, and so weary
of it, as to desire a speedy removal out of it,
or because his work was done, and done the
sooner for his minding it so closely. Note,
God often takes those soonest whom he loves
best, and the time they lose on earth is gained
in heaven, to their unspeakable advantage.
(2.) What time of the world. It was when
all the patriarchs mentioned in this chapter
were living, except Adam, who died fifty-seven
years before, and Noah, who was born sixty-nine
years after; those two had sensible confirmations
to their faith other ways, but to
all the rest, who were or might have been
witnesses of Enoch's translation, it was a
sensible encouragement to their faith and
hope concerning a future state.
2. How his removal is expressed: He was
not, for God took him. (1.) He was not any
longer in this world; it was not the period of
his being, but of his being here: he was not
found, so the apostle explains it from the
LXX.; not found by his friends, who sought
him as the sons of the prophets sought Elijah
( 2 Kings ii. 17 );
not found by his enemies,
who, some think, were in quest of him, to
put him to death in their rage against him
for his eminent piety. It appears by his
prophecy that there were then many ungodly
sinners, who spoke hard speeches, and probably
did hard things too, against God's
people
( Jude 15 ),
but God hid Enoch from
them, not under heaven, but in heaven.
(2.) God took him body and soul to himself in
the heavenly paradise, by the ministry of
angels, as afterwards he took Elijah. He
was changed, as those saints will be that shall
be found alive at Christ's second coming.
Whenever a good man dies God takes him, fetches him hence, and receives him to himself.
The apostle adds concerning Enoch
that, before his translation, he had this testimony,
that he pleased God, and this was the
good report he obtained. Note,
[1.] Walking
with God pleases God.
[2.] We cannot
walk with God so as to please him, but by
faith.
[3.] God himself will put an honour
upon those that by faith walk with him so as
to please him. He will own them now, and
witness for them before angels and men at
the great day. Those that have not this
testimony before the translation, yet shall
have it afterwards.
[4.] Those whose conversation
in the world is truly holy shall find
their removal out of it truly happy. Enoch's
translation was not only an evidence to faith
of the reality of a future state, and of the possibility
of the body's existing in glory in that
state; but it was an encouragement to the
hope of all that walk with God that they
shall be for ever with him: signal piety shall
be crowned with signal honours.
25 And Methuselah lived a hundred
eighty and seven years, and
begat Lamech:
26 And Methuselah
lived after he begat Lamech seven
hundred eighty and two years, and
begat sons and daughters:
27 And
all the days of Methuselah were nine
hundred sixty and nine years: and
he died.
Concerning Methuselah observe,
1. The
signification of his name, which some think
was prophetical, his father Enoch being a
prophet. Methuselah signifies, he dies, or there is a dart, or, a sending forth, namely,
of the deluge, which came the very year that
Methuselah died. If indeed his name was
so intended and so explained, it was fair
warning to a careless world, a long time before
the judgment came. However, this is
observable, that the longest liver that ever
was carried death in his name, that he might
be reminded of its coming surely, though it
came slowly.
2. His age: he lived nine
hundred and sixty-nine years, the longest we
read of that ever any man lived on earth;
and yet he died. The longest liver must die
at last. Neither youth nor age will discharge
from that war, for that is the end of all men:
none can challenge life by long prescription,
nor make that a plea against the arrests of
death. It is commonly supposed that Methuselah
died a little before the flood; the
Jewish writers say, "seven days before," referring
to ch. vii. 10 ,
and that he was taken
away from the evil to come, which goes upon
this presumption, which is generally received,
that all the patriarchs mentioned in this
chapter were holy good men. I am loth to
offer any surmise to the contrary; and yet I
see not that this can be any more inferred
from their enrollment here among the ancestors
of Christ than that all those kings of
Judah were so whose names are recorded in
his genealogy, many of whom, we are sure,
were much otherwise: and, if this be questioned,
it may be suggested as probable that
Methuselah was himself drowned with the
rest of the world; for it is certain that he
died that year.
28 And Lamech lived a hundred
eighty and two years, and begat a
son:
29 And he called his name
Noah, saying, This same shall comfort
us concerning our work and toil of
our hands, because of the ground
which the L ORD hath cursed.
30 And Lamech lived after he begat
Noah five hundred ninety and five
years, and begat sons and daughters:
31 And all the days of Lamech were
seven hundred seventy and seven
years: and he died.
32 And Noah
was five hundred years old: and Noah
begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Here we have the first mention of Noah, of
whom we shall read much in the following
chapters. Observe,
I. His name, with the reason of it: Noah signifies rest; his parents gave him that
name, with a prospect of his being a more
than ordinary blessing to his generation: This same shall comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground
which the Lord hath cursed. Here is,
1. Lamech's
complaint of the calamitous state of human
life. By the entrance of sin, and the entail
of the curse for sin, our condition has become
very miserable: our whole life is spent
in labour, and our time filled up with continual
toil. God having cursed the ground,
it is as much as some can do, with the utmost
care and pains, to fetch a hard livelihood
out of it. He speaks as one fatigued with
the business of this life, and grudging that
so many thoughts and precious minutes,
which otherwise might have been much better
employed, are unavoidably spent for the support
of the body.
2. His comfortable hopes
of some relief by the birth of this son: This
same shall comfort us, which denotes not
only the desire and expectation which parents
generally have concerning their children
(that, when they grow up, they will be comforts
to them and helpers in their business,
though they often prove otherwise), but an
apprehension and prospect of something more.
Very probably there were some prophecies
that went before of him, as a person that
should be wonderfully serviceable to his generation,
which they so understood as to
conclude that he was the promised seed, the
Messiah that should come; and then it intimates
that a covenant-interest in Christ as
ours, and the believing expectation of his coming,
furnish us with the best and surest comforts, both in reference to the wrath and
curse of God which we have deserved and to
the toils and troubles of this present time of
which we are often complaining. "Is Christ
ours? Is heaven ours? This same shall comfort
us. "
II. His children, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
These Noah begat (the eldest of these) when
he was 500 years old. It should seem that
Japheth was the eldest
( ch. x. 21 ),
but Shem
is put first because on him the covenant was
entailed, as appears by ch. ix. 26 ,
where God
is called the Lord God of Shem. To him, it
is probable, the birth-right was given, and
from him, it is certain, both Christ the head,
and the church the body, were to descend.
Therefore he is called Shem, which signifies a name, because in his posterity the name of
God should always remain, till he should
come out of his loins whose name is above
every name; so that in putting Shem first
Christ was, in effect, put first, who in all
things must have the pre-eminence.
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 5
This chapter contains a list or catalogue of the posterity of Adam in the line of Seth, down to Noah; it begins with a short account of the creation of Adam, and of his life and death, Ge 5:1 next of five of the antediluvian patriarchs, their age and death, namely Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Ge 5:6 then a particular relation of Enoch, his character and translation, Ge 5:21 then follows an account of Methuselah, the oldest man, and Lamech's oracle concerning his son Noah, Ge 5:12 and the chapter is closed with the life and death of Lamech, and the birth of the three sons of Noah, Ge 5:30.
Ver. 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam,.... An account of persons born of him, or who descended from him by generation in the line of Seth, down to Noah, consisting of ten generations; for a genealogy of all his descendants is not here given, not of those in the line of Cain, nor of the collateral branches in the line of Seth, only of those that descended one from another in a direct line to Noah:
in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; this is repeated from Ge 1:27 to put in mind that man is a creature of God; that God made him, and not he himself; that the first man was not begotten or produced in like manner as his sons are, but was immediately created; that his creation was in time, when there were days, and it was not on the first of these, but on the sixth; and that he was made in the likeness of God, which chiefly lay in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and in dominion over the creatures.
Genesis 5:2
Ver. 2. Male and female created he them,.... Adam and Eve, the one a male, the other a female; and but one male and one female, to show that one man and one woman only were to be joined together in marriage, and live as man and wife for the procreation of posterity; and these were not made together, but first the male, and then the female out of him, though both in one day:
and blessed them; with a power of propagating their species, and multiplying it, and with all other blessings of nature and providence; with an habitation in the garden of Eden; with leave to eat of the fruit of all the trees in it, but one; with subjection of all the creatures to them, and with communion with God in their enjoyments:
and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created; which, as Philo {s} observes, signifies "earth"; and according to Josephus {t} red earth, out of which Adam was made; and as soon as he was made, this name was imposed upon him by God, to put him in mind of his original, that he was of the earth, earthly; and the same name was given to Eve, because made out of him, and because other marriage with him, and union to him; on that account, as ever since, man and wife bear the same name: wherefore I should rather think the name was given them from their junction and union together in love; so the name may be derived from the Arabic word {u} signifying to "join": though some think they had it from their beauty, and the elegance of their form {w}, being the most fair and beautiful of the whole creation. The names of Adam and Eve in Sanchoniatho {x}, as translated into Greek by Philo Byblius, are Protogonos, the first born, and Aeon, which has some likeness to Eve: the name of the first man with the Chinese is Puoncuus {y}.
{s} Leg. Allegor. l. 1. p. 57. {t} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 2. {u} "junxit, addiditque rem rei---amore junxit", Golius, col. 48. {w} Mda "pulcher fuit, nituit", Stockius, p. 13. Vid Ludolph. Hist. Ethiop. l. 1. c. 15. {x} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 34. {y} Martin. Hist. Sinic. l. 1. p. 3.
Genesis 5:3
Ver. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,.... The Septuagint version, through mistaken, gives the number two hundred and thirty years:
and begat [a son]; not that he had no other children during this time than Cain and Abel; this is only observed to show how old he was when Seth was born, the son here meant; who was begotten
in his own likeness, after his image; not in the likeness, and after the image of God, in which Adam was created; for having sinned, he lost that image, at least it was greatly defaced, and he came short of that glory of God, and could not convey it to his posterity; who are, and ever have been conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; are polluted and unclean, foolish and disobedient; averse to all that is good, and prone to all that is evil: the sinfulness of nature is conveyed by natural generation, but not holiness and grace; that is not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the flesh, but of God, and produced of his own will, by his mighty power impressing the image of his Son in regeneration on his people; which by beholding his glory they are more and more changed into by the Spirit of God. The Jewish writers understand this in a good sense, of Seth being like to Adam in goodness, when Cain was not: so the Targum of Jonathan,
"and he begat Seth, who was like to his image and similitude; for before Eve had brought forth Cain, who was not like unto him---but afterwards she brought forth him who was like unto him, and called his name Seth.''
So they say {z} Cain was not of the seed, nor of the image of Adam, nor his works like Abel his brother; but Seth was of the seed and image of Adam, and his works were like the works of his brother Abel; according to that, "he begat (a son) in his own likeness". And they assert {a}, that Adam delivered all his wisdom to Seth his son, who was born after his image and likeness; and particularly Maimonides {b} observes, that all the sons of Adam before Seth were rather beasts than men, and had not the true human form, not the form and image of men; but Seth, after Adam had taught and instructed him, was in human perfection, as it is said of him, "and he begat in his likeness": but the text speaks not of the education of Seth, and of what he was through that, but of his birth, and what he was in consequence of it; and we are told by good authority, that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh", carnal and corrupt, and such are all the sons of Adam by natural generation; see
Job 14:4.
{z} Pirke Eliezer, c. 22. {a} Shalshalet Hakabala, apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 212. {b} More Nevochim, par. 1. c. 7.
Genesis 5:4
Ver. 4. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years,.... The Septuagint version is seven hundred; for having added one hundred years more the should be, to the years of his life before the birth of Seth, here they are taken away to make the number of his years complete:
and he begat sons and daughters; not only after the birth of Seth, but before, though we have no account of any, unless of Cain's wife; but what their number was is not certain, either before or after; some say he had thirty children, besides Cain, Abel, and Seth; and others a hundred {c}. Josephus says the number of children, according to the old tradition, was thirty three sons and twenty three daughters. {d}
(These families had at least five children, for one son is named as well as other sons and daughters. Therefore there must be at least three sons and two daughters in each family. For a family to have at least three sons and two daughters, according to the laws of chance, a family must on the average have nine children for this to be a near certainty. Hence the families listed in this chapter must have been large by today's standards. Given their long life, this is not at all unusual. However even today, the Old Order Mennonites of Waterloo County in and in Pennsylvannia, have many families this large. Ed.)
{c} Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 74. 2. {d} Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. footnote on point 3.
Genesis 5:5
Ver. 5. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years,.... Not lunar years, as Varro {d}, but solar years, which consisted of three hundred and sixty five days and odd hours, and such were in use among the Egyptians in the times of Moses; and of these must be the age of Adam, and of his posterity in this chapter, and of other patriarchs in this book; or otherwise, some must be said to beget children at an age unfit for it, particularly Enoch, who must beget a son in the sixth year of his age; and the lives of some of them must be very short, even shorter than ours, as Abraham and others; and the time between the creation and the deluge could not be two hundred years: but this long life of the antediluvians, according to the Scripture account, is confirmed by the testimony of many Heathen writers, who affirm that the ancients lived a thousand years, as many of them did, pretty near, though not quite, they using a round number to express their longevity by; for the proof of this Josephus {e} appeals to the testimonies of Manetho the Egyptian, and Berosus the Chaldean, and Mochus and Hestiaeus; besides Jerom the Egyptian, and the Phoenician writers; also Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus and Nicolaus. And though the length of time they lived may in some measure be accounted for by natural things as means, such as their healthful constitution, simple diet, the goodness of the fruits of the earth, the temperate air and climate they lived in, their sobriety, temperance, labour and exercise; yet no doubt it was so ordered in Providence for the multiplication of mankind, for the cultivation of arts and sciences, and for the spread of true religion in the world, and the easier handing down to posterity such things as were useful, both for the good of the souls and bodies of men. Maimonides {f} is of opinion, that only those individual persons mentioned in Scripture lived so long, not men in common; and which was owing to their diet and temperance, and exact manner of living, or to a miracle; but there is no reason to believe that they were the only temperate persons, or that any miracle should be wrought particularly on their account for prolonging their lives, and not others. But though they lived so long, it is said of them all, as here of the first man,
and he died, according to the sentence of the law in Gen 2:17 and though he died not immediately upon his transgression of the law, yet he was from thence forward under the sentence of death, and liable to it; yea, death seized upon him, and was working in him, till it brought him to the dust of it; his life, though so long protracted, was a dying life, and at last he submitted to the stroke of death, as all his posterity ever since have, one or two excepted, and all must; for "it is appointed unto men once to die". Heb 9:27. The Arabic {g} writers relate, that Adam when he was near death called to him Seth, Enos, Kainan, and Mahalaleel, and ordered them by his will, when he was dead, to embalm his body with myrrh, frankincense, and cassia, and lay it in the hidden cave, the cave of Machpelah, where the Jews {h} say he was buried, and where Abraham, Sarah, &c. were buried; and that if they should remove from the neighbourhood of paradise, and from the mountain where they dwelt, they should take his body with them, and bury it in the middle or the earth. They are very particular as to the time of his death. They say {i} it was on a Friday, the fourteenth of Nisan, which answers to part of March and part of April, A. M. nine hundred and thirty, in the ninth hour of that day. The Jews are divided about the funeral of him; some say Seth buried him; others, Enoch; and others, God himself {k}: the primitive Christian fathers will have it that he was buried at , on , where Christ suffered.
{d} Apud Lactant. Institut. l. 2. c. 13. {e} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 9. {f} More Nevochim, par. 2. p. 47. {g} Patricides, p. 5. Elmacinus, p. 6. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 8. p. 216, 217. {h} Pirke Eliezer, c. 20. Juchasin, fol. 5. 1. {i} Patricides & Elamacinus, apud Hottinger. ib. {k} Juchasin, ut supra. (fol. 5. 1.)
Genesis 5:6
Ver. 6. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos. Not that this was his firstborn, no doubt but he had other children before this time; but this is only mentioned, because it carried the lineage and descent directly from Adam to Noah, the father of the new world, and from whom the Messiah was to spring; whose genealogy to give is a principal view of this book, or account of generations from Adam to Noah.
Genesis 5:7
Ver. 7. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years,.... The Septuagint version makes the same mistake in the numbers of Seth as of Adam, giving him two hundred and five years before the birth of Enos, and but seven hundred and seven years after:
and begat sons and daughters; very probably both before and after Enos was born; but how many is not said.
Genesis 5:8
Ver. 8. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. As his father Adam before him. Seth, according to Josephus {l}, was a very good man, and brought up his children well, who trod in his steps, and who studied the nature of the heavenly bodies; and that the knowledge of these things they had acquired might not be lost, remembering a prophecy of Adam, that the world should be destroyed both by fire and by water, they erected two pillars, called Seth's pillars; the one was made of brick, and the other of stone, on which they inscribed their observations, that so if that of brick was destroyed by a flood, that of stone might remain; and which the above writer says continued in his time in the land of Siriad. The Arabic writers {m} make Seth to be the inventor of the Hebrew letters, and say, that when he was about to die he called to him Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, their wives and children, and adjured them by the blood of Abel not to descend from the mountain where they dwelt, after the death of Adam, nor suffer any of their children to go to, or mix with any of the seed of Cain, which were in the valley; whom he blessed, and ordered by his will to serve the Lord, and then died in the year of his age nine hundred and twelve, on the third day of the week of the month Ab (which answers to part of July and part of August), A. M. 1142, and his sons buried him in the hidden cave in the holy mountain, and mourned for him forty days.
{l} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 2. sect. 3. {m} Elmacinus, Patricides, apud Hottinger, p. 228, 229.
Genesis 5:9
Ver. 9. And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. According to the Septuagint a hundred and ninety years; it can hardly be thought but that he had sons or daughters before, but this is only taken notice of for a reason before given.
Genesis 5:10
Ver. 10. And Enos lived, after he begat Cainan, eight hundred and fifteen years,.... The Septuagint version is seven hundred and fifteen; the hundred which is wanting is to be supplied from the preceding verse, which in that version has an hundred too much:
and begat sons and daughters; others besides Enos, as very likely he had before he was born.
Genesis 5:11
Ver. 11. And all the days or Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died. According to the Arabic writers {n}, this man was a very good man, governed his people well, and instructed them in the ways of righteousness, and the fear of God; and when his end drew nigh, his offspring gathered about him for his blessing; and calling them to him, he ordered them by his will to practise holiness, and exhorted them not to mix with the offspring of Cain the murderer; and having appointed Cainan his successor, he died in the year of his age nine hundred and five, A. M. 1340, and was buried in the holy mountain; but according to Bishop Usher it was A. M. 1140.
{n} Elmacinus, apud Hottinger, p. 231.
Genesis 5:12
Ver. 12. And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel. Here the Septuagint version adds an hundred years, as before.
Genesis 5:13
Ver. 13. And Cainan lived, after he begat Mahalaleel, eight hundred and forty years,.... The Septuagint has seven hundred and forty, which, added to the years given him before, makes the same sum:
and begat sons and daughters; as his progenitors did.
Genesis 5:14
Ver. 14. And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died. The Arabic writers {o} also commend him as a good ruler of his people; and at his death he charged them not to desert the holy mountain, and join themselves with Cain's posterity; and having appointed Mahalaleel, who they say was his eldest son, his successor, he died on the fourth day of the week, and the thirteenth of the month Cheziran, A. M. 1535, and was buried in the double cave, and they mourned for him, according to custom, forty days: according to Bishop Usher it was in A. M. 1235.
{o} Elmacinus, apud Hottinger, p. 233.
Genesis 5:15
Ver. 15. And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared. A hundred and sixty, according to the Septuagint version.
Genesis 5:16
Ver. 16. And Mahalaleel lived, after he begat Jared, eight hundred and thirty years,.... Seven hundred and thirty, as the above version, still making the same mistake:
and he begat sons and daughters; how many cannot be said.
Genesis 5:17
Ver. 17. And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years, and he died. He also is spoken well of by the Arabic writers {p} as a good governor, a pious man that walked in the way of righteousness; and when he died blessed his children, and adjured them by the blood of Abel, not to suffer any of theirs to descend from the mountain to the sons of Cain: according to Bishop Usher he died A. M. 1290.
{p} Elmacinus, & Patricides in ib. p. 234.
Genesis 5:18
Ver. 18. And Jared lived an hundred and sixty two years, and he begat Enoch. Here the Septuagint agrees with the Hebrew text, and the Samaritan version differs, reading only sixty two; but this can hardly be thought to be his first son at such an age.
Genesis 5:19
Ver. 19. And Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years,.... And so, the Greek version, but the Samaritan is seven hundred and eighty five:
and begat sons and daughters; in that time, as well as before; for it is not to be imagined in this, or either of the foregoing or following instances, that these sons and daughters were begotten after living to such an age, since it is plain at that age they died.
Genesis 5:20
Ver. 20. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years, and he died. The name of this patriarch signifies "descending"; and, according to the Arabic writers {q}, he had his name from the posterity of Seth, descending from the holy mountain in his time; for upon a noise being heard on the mountain, about an hundred men went down to the sons of Cain, contrary to the prohibition and dehortation of Jared, and mixed themselves with the daughters of Cain, which brought on the apostasy: when Jared was near his end, he called to him Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, and their children, and said unto them, ye know what some have done, that they have gone down from the mountain, and have had conversation with the daughters of Cain, and have defiled themselves; take you care of your purity, and do not descend from the holy mountain; after which he blessed them, and having appointed Enoch his successor, he died the twelfth of Adar, answering to February, A. M. 1922: according to the Samaritan version, he lived only eight hundred and forty seven years: he died, according to Bishop Usher, A. M. 1422.
{q} Elmacinus, & Patricides in ib. p. 235.
Genesis 5:21
Ver. 21. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. Here the Septuagint version adds again an hundred years; and that Enoch had a son, whose name was Methuselah, is affirmed by Eupolemus {r}, an Heathen writer; and Enoch being a prophet gave him this name under a spirit of prophecy, foretelling by it when the flood should be; for his name, according to Bochart {s}, signifies, "when he dies there shall be an emission", or sending forth of waters upon the earth, to destroy it,
{r} Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 17. p. 419. {s} Thaleg. l. 2. c. 13. col. 88. so Ainsworth.
Genesis 5:22
Ver. 22. And Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years,.... The Greek version is two hundred. He had walked with God undoubtedly before, but perhaps after this time more closely and constantly: and this is observed to denote, that he continued so to do all the days of his life, notwithstanding the apostasy which began in the days of his father, and increased in his. He walked in the name and fear of God, according to his will, in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord then made known; he walked by faith in the promises of God, and in the view of the Messiah, the promised seed; he walked uprightly and sincerely, as in the sight of God; he had familiar converse, and near and intimate communion with him: and even the above Heathen writer, Eupolemus, seems to suggest something like this, when he says, that he knew all things by the angels of God, which seems to denote an intimacy with them; and that he received messages from God by them:
and begat sons and daughters; the marriage state and procreation of children being not inconsistent with the most religious, spiritual, and godly conversation.
Genesis 5:23
Ver. 23. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five years. A year of years, living as many years as there are days in a year; not half the age of the rest of the patriarchs: our poet {t} calls him one of middle age; though his being taken away in the midst of his days was not a token of divine displeasure, but of favour, as follows; see Ps 55:23.
{t} 's Lost, B. 11. l. 665.
Genesis 5:24
Ver. 24. And Enoch walked with God,.... Which is repeated both for the confirmation of it, and for the singularity of it in that corrupt age; and to cause attention to it, and stir up others to imitate him in it, as well as to express the well pleasedness of God therein; for so it is interpreted, "he had this testimony, that he pleased God",
Heb 11:5
and he was not; not that he was dead, or in the state of the dead, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret the phrase following,
for God took him, out of the world by death, according to
1Ki 19:4 "for he was translated, that he should not see death", Heb 11:5 nor was he annihilated, or reduced to nothing, "for God took him", and therefore he must exist somewhere: but the sense is, he was not in the land of the living, he was no longer in this world; or with the inhabitants of the earth, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it; but the Lord took him to himself out of the world, in love to him, and removed him from earth to heaven, soul and body, as Elijah was taken; See Gill on "Heb 11:5". The Arabic writers {u} call him Edris, and say he was skilled in astronomy and other sciences, whom the Grecians say is the same with Hermes Trismegistus; and the Jews call him Metatron, the great scribe, as in the Targum of Jonathan: they say {w}, that Adam delivered to him the secret of the intercalation of the year, and he delivered it to Noah, and that he was the first that composed books of astronomy {x}; and so Eupolemus {y} says he was the first inventor of astrology, and not the Egyptians; and is the same the Greeks call Atlas, to whom they ascribe the invention of it. The apostle Jude speaks of him as a prophet,
#Jude 14 and the Jews say {z}, that he was in a higher degree of prophecy than Moses and Elias; but the fragments that go under his name are spurious: there was a book ascribed to him, which is often referred to in the book of Zohar, but cannot be thought to be genuine.
{u} Elmacinus, Patricides, apud Hottinger. p. 239. 240. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 9. {w} Juchasin, fol. 5. 1. Pirke Eliezer, c. 8. {x} Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 74. 2. {y} Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 17. p. 419.) {z} Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 1, 2.
Genesis 5:25
Ver. 25. And Methuselah lived an hundred and eighty and seven years, and beget Lamech. The Septuagint version is an hundred and sixty seven; the Samaritan only sixty seven; the same names were given to some of the posterity of Seth as were to those of Cain, as Lamech here, and Enoch before.
Genesis 5:26
Ver. 26. And Methuselah lived, after he begat Lamech, seven hundred eighty and two years,.... The Greek version is eight hundred and two years, and so makes the sum total of his life the same; but the Samaritan version only six hundred and fifty three, and so makes his whole life but seven hundred and twenty; and thus, instead of being the oldest, he is made the youngest of the antediluvian patriarchs, excepting his father Enoch:
and begat sons and daughters; some, it is highly probable, before he beget Lamech, since then he was near two hundred years of age, as well as others after
Genesis 5:27
Ver. 27. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty nine years, and he died,.... This was the oldest man that ever lived, no man ever lived to a thousand years: the Jews give this as a reason for it, because a thousand years is God's day, according to
Ps 90:4 and no man is suffered to arrive to that. His name carried in it a prediction of the time of the flood, which was to be quickly after his death, as has been observed, See Gill on "Ge ". Some say he died in the year of the flood; others, fourteen years after, and was in the garden of Eden with his father, in the days of the flood, and then returned to the world {a}; but the eastern writers are unanimous that he died before the flood: the Arabic writers {b} are very particular as to the time in which he died; they say he died in the six hundredth year of Noah, on a Friday, about noon, on the twenty first day of Elul, which is Thout; and Noah and Shem buried him, embalmed in spices, in the double cave, and mourned for him forty days: and some of the Jewish writers say he died but seven days before the flood came, which they gather from Ge 7:10 "after seven days"; that is, as they interpret it, after seven days of mourning for Methuselah {c}: he died A. M. 1656, the same year the flood came, according to Bishop Usher.
{a} Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 74. 2. {b} Apud Hottinger, p. 244. {c} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 32. fol. 27. 3. Juchasin, fol. 6. 1. Baal Habturim in Gen. vii. 10.
Genesis 5:28
Ver. 28. And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat son. According to the Septuagint version he was an hundred and eighty eight years old; but according to the Samaritan version only fifty three; the name, of his son, begotten by him, is given in the next verse, with the reason of it.
Genesis 5:29
Ver. 29. And he called his name Noah,.... Which signifies rest and comfort; for rest gives comfort, and comfort flows from rest, see
2Sa 14:17, where a word from the same root is rendered "comfortable", and agrees with the reason of the name, as follows:
saying, this same shall comfort us, concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed; this he spake by a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing what his son would be, and of what advantage to him and his family, and to the world, both in things temporal and spiritual. In things temporal: the earth was cursed for the sin of man immediately after the fall, and continued under it to this time, bringing forth thorns and thistles in great abundance of itself, which occasioned much trouble to root and pluck them up, and nothing else, without digging, and planting, and sowing; and being barren through the curse, it was with great difficulty men got a livelihood: now Noah eased them in a good measure of their toil and trouble, by inventing instruments of ploughing, as Jarchi suggests, which they had not before, but threw up the ground with their hands, and by the use of spades, or such like things, which was very laborious; but now, by the use of the plough, and beasts to draw it, their lives were made much more easy and comfortable; hence he is said to begin to be an "husbandman", or a "man of the earth", that brought agriculture to a greater perfection, having found out an easier and quicker manner of tilling the earth: and as he was the first that is said to plant a vineyard, if he was the inventor of wine, this was another way in which he was an instrument of giving refreshment and comfort to men, that being what cheers the heart of God and men, see Ge 9:20 and if the antediluvians were restrained from eating of flesh, and their diet was confined to the fruits of the earth; Noah, as Dr. Lightfoot {d} observes, would be a comfort in reference to this, because to him, and in him to all the world, God would give liberty to eat flesh; so that they were not obliged to get their whole livelihood with their hands out of the ground: and moreover, as Lamech might be apprised of the flood by the name of his father, and the prediction of his grandfather, he might foresee that he and his family would be saved, and be the restorer of the world, and repeople it, after the destruction of it by the flood. And he may have respect to comfort in spiritual things, either at first taking him to be the promised seed, the Messiah, in whom all comfort is; or however a type of him, and from whom he should spring, who would deliver them from the curse of the law, and from the bondage of it, and from toiling and seeking for a righteousness by the works of it; or he might foresee that he would be a good man, and a preacher of righteousness, and be a public good in his day and generation.
{d} Works, vol. 1. p. 9.
Genesis 5:30
Ver. 30. And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety and five years,.... The Septuagint version is five hundred and sixty five; and the Samaritan version six hundred:
and begat sons and daughters; of which we have no account.
Genesis 5:31
Ver. 31. And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years, and he died. According to the Greek version, he lived but seven hundred and fifty three; and according to the Samaritan version, only six hundred and fifty three: but it is best and safest in these, and all the above numbers, to follow the original Hebrew, and the numbers in that, with which the Targum of Onkelos exactly agrees, written about the time of Christ; and these numbers were just the same when the two Talmuds were composed. Some of the Jewish writers, and so some Christians, confound this Lamech with the other Lamech, who was of the race of Cain, spoken of in the preceding chapter, and say he was a bigamist and a murderer; and that in his days sins were committed openly, and witchcraft was throughout the whole world {e}: he died, according to Bishop Usher, A. M. 1651. Eight times in this chapter the phrase is used, "and he died", to put us in mind of death; to observe that it is the way of all flesh; that those that live longest die at last, and it must be expected by everyone.
{e} Shalshalet Hakabal, fol. 1. 2. & 74. 2.
Genesis 5:32
Ver. 32. And Noah was five hundred years old,.... Or "the son of five hundred years" {f}; he was in his five hundredth year: it can hardly be thought that he should live to this time a single life, and have no children born to him, which he might have had, but were dead; though some think it was so ordered by Providence, that he should not begin to procreate children until of this age, because it being the will of God to save him and his family from the flood, had he began at the usual age he might have had more than could conveniently be provided for in the ark; or some of them might have proved wicked, and so would deserve to perish with others:
and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth; not together, but one after another; and since Ham was the younger son, see Ge 9:24 and Shem was an hundred years old two years after the flood, Ge 11:10 he must be born in the five hundred and second year of his father's age; so that it seems most probable that Japheth was the eldest son, and born in the five hundred and first year of his age; though Shem is usually mentioned first, because of his superior dignity and excellency, God being in an eminent manner the God of Shem, Ge 9:26 and from whom the Messiah was to spring, and in whose line the church of God was to be continued in future ages. The name of Japheth is retained in Greek and Latin authors, as Hesiod {g} Horace {h}, and others {i}, by whom he is called Japetos and Japetus.
{f} hnv twam vmx Nb "filius quingentorum annorum", Pagninus, Montanus, &c. {g} "Theogonia prope principium et passim". {h} Carmin. l. 1. Ode 3. {i} Apollodorus de Deorum Orig. l. 1. p. 2, 4. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Adam was made in the image of God; but when
fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail,
wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself,
consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself. This was the
reverse of that Divine likeness in which Adam was made; having
lost it, he could not convey it to his seed. Adam lived, in all, 930
years; and then died, according to the sentence passed upon him,
"To dust thou shalt return." Though he did not die in the day he ate
forbidden fruit, yet in that very day he became mortal. Then he
began to die; his whole life after was but a reprieve, a forfeited,
condemned life; it was a wasting, dying life. Man's life is but dying
by degrees. WHBC 6.2
Adam was made in the image of God; but when
fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail,
wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself,
consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself.
Man's life is but dying
by degrees. WHBC 6.2
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary