The book of the generations of Adam
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness. 2 He created them male and female, and blessed them. On the day they were created, he named them Adam. 3 Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. 5 All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then he died. 6 Seth lived one hundred five years, then became the father of Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he became the father of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 8 All of the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years, then he died. 9 Enosh lived ninety years, and became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he became the father of Kenan eight hundred fifteen years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 11 All of the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years, then he died. 12 Kenan lived seventy years, then became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he became the father of Mahalalel eight hundred forty years, and became the father of other sons and daughters 14 and all of the days of Kenan were nine hundred ten years, then he died. 15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, then became the father of Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he became the father of Jared eight hundred thirty years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 17 All of the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety-five years, then he died. 18 Jared lived one hundred sixty-two years, then became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he became the father of Enoch eight hundred years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 20 All of the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years, then he died. 21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, then became the father of Methuselah. 22 After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and became the father of more sons and daughters. 23 All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him. 25 Methuselah lived one hundred eighty-seven years, then became the father of Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he became the father of Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 27 All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, then he died. 28 Lamech lived one hundred eighty-two years, then became the father of a son. 29 He named him Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, caused by the ground which Yahweh has cursed.” 30 Lamech lived after he became the father of Noah five hundred ninety-five years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. 31 All the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy-seven years, then he died. 32 Noah was five hundred years old, then Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
A list of ten men, each with a number and a death, and two names in it that break the pattern.
The chapter is a genealogy and it is not a list of names. It is a list of names with arithmetic attached — the age of each man when his son was born, the years he lived afterward, and his total — which no other genealogy in Scripture supplies. The numbers are the point of the form, and a reader is plainly meant to be able to add them.
It opens by repeating the creation of man in the same terms as chapter one — made in God's likeness, male and female, blessed, and named together — and then adds a line that does something new: Adam became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image. The image is transmitted. Whatever happened in the garden, the man's descendants are still made in God's image, and Scripture will later ground the prohibition of murder on exactly that Genesis 9:6. What is also transmitted, the rest of the chapter shows, is death.
The refrain does the work. Eight times a life is summed up and closed with three words: then he died. Nine hundred and thirty years, then he died. Nine hundred and twelve, then he died. Nine hundred and sixty-nine — the longest life anyone has ever lived — then he died. The length of the lives makes the ending more emphatic rather than less. However long the number, the sentence pronounced in Genesis 3:19 is being carried out in every line, and the chapter's real subject is a verdict working itself through ten generations.
Two entries break it. Enoch is the seventh from Adam, occupying in this line the position Lamech held in Cain's, and of him the refrain is not used. He walked with God for three hundred years, and then Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him. The phrase used of his life is used of his end, which suggests the second was the natural continuation of the first.
What happened to him is not explained here and is stated plainly elsewhere: he was taken so that he would not see death Hebrews 11:5. It is an exception and Scripture presents it as one — remarkable precisely because everybody else in the chapter died. Nothing in it establishes a pattern; the pattern is the eight repetitions around it.
The second break is Lamech's naming of his son, and it is the only speech in the chapter. This one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, caused by the ground which Yahweh has cursed. A man in the ninth generation is still living under the sentence of Genesis 3:17, still feels it as toil, and names his child in hope of relief from it.
He did not get what he expected, and he got something. The ground would be cursed no further after the flood, and God would say so over an altar his son built Genesis 8:21.
settled What this mark means