Genesis 5:30 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

NIV: After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

NASB: Then Lamech lived 595 years after he fathered Noah, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

CSB: Lamech lived 595 years after he fathered Noah, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

NLT: After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived another 595 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

KJV: And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

NKJV: After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.

As with most of the other men listed in this chapter, verses 30 and 31 describe Lamech as having additional children, and then passing away. According to the numbers given in this passage, Lamech lived 595 more years after Noah was born. Since we're told in Genesis 7:6 that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came on the earth, this means Lamech died just 5 years before the flood.

As with Methuselah, there is a sad aspect to reading about Lamech's many children. One way or another, only Noah, his wife, and their family would be rescued from the flood. The rest of Lamech's offspring will not survive. One also has to wonder how Lamech felt about the state of mankind. According to Genesis 6:5, the human race was rapidly decaying into horrific evil. And yet, men like Lamech had lived on earth at the same time as men like Adam and Seth. The contrast between these eras would have been especially clear to someone like him.

Genesis 5:1-32 is a bridge of genealogy connecting the time of Adam and his son Seth to the time of Noah. This brings the Bible's historical record to the era of the flood. It provides a small, but helpful set of details: early humans lived a long time, had many children, and all died as a result of ubiquitous human sin. Enoch is the exception that proves the rule, commended for walking with God and seemingly taken away before his physical death. Despite the presence of early God-worshippers such as Adam and Seth, man will quickly descend into extraordinary wickedness, as seen in chapter 6. The coming of Noah at the end of this chapter prepares us for God's response to the sins of humankind.

Chapter 5 uses a simple genealogy of Adam's descendants through Seth to link the earliest humans with the time of Noah and the flood. In the generations after the garden, human beings live extraordinarily long lives, have great numbers of children, and continue to be in relationship with God though separated from Him physically and spiritually. The description of Enoch being ''taken'' by God is the exception that proves the rule: No matter how long a person lives, sin always leads to death.

Genesis 4 ends with the birth of Seth's son Enosh, and a statement that people had begun to call on the Lord's name. Chapter 5 details the generations from Adam through Seth to Noah, connecting the time of Adam and Seth with the time of Noah and his sons as described in chapter 6. This sets the stage for God's judgment of mankind's pervasive sin in the flood.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 4/28/2024 10:15:01 PM