The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Genesis 5
Chapter V · Vol. I, pp. 220–222
1 The genealogy, age, and death of the patriarchs from Adam unto Noah. 24 The godliness and translation of Enoch.
1 This is the abook of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the blikeness of God made he him:5
A.M. 1. B.C. 4004.
a History, Mat. 1.1; ch. 2.4; 6.9; 10.1.
b See ch. 1. 26, 27. Job 15. 14; 25.5. Ec. 7. 29.
5 We have here the beginning of a new document which goes back to the creation of Adam, and gives a genealogical table extending down to Noah. It commences, 'This is the book or writing of the generations of Adam;' leaving the impression that it was originally a monograph. It is complete in itself; and would seem to have been embodied by Moses in its entirety.—P.
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and ccalled their name Adam,1 in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his down likeness, after his image; and called his name eSeth.
4 And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years; and he fbegat sons and daughters.
5 And all the days that Adam lived were gnine hundred and thirty years: and he hdied.
g ver. 8,11,14,17, &c. with Ps. 90. 10. De. 30. 20.
h He. 9. 27. Job 30. 23. Ec. 12.5,7; ver. 8,11, 14, &c. 2 Sa. 14.14. Ps. 49.7-10; 89.48. Ec. 9.5, 6. Eze. 18.4. Ro. 5.12-14. 1 Co. 15.21,22.
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.
10 And Enos lived, after he begat Cainan, eight hundred and fifteen years, and ibegat sons and daughters.
i See ver. 4.
12 And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel.5
5 Or, Maleleel, Lu. 3.37, i.e. the praising of God.
13 And Cainan lived, after he begat Mahalaleel, eight hundred and forty years, and lbegat sons and daughters.
l See ver. 4.
15 And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years,6 and begat Jared.7
6 3514.
7 Heb. Jered, 1 Ch. 1. 2, i.e. the coming down.
16 And Mahalaleel lived, after he begat Jared, eight hundred and thirty years, and begatn sons and daughters.
A.M. 490. B.C. 3514.
n See ver. 4.
17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and ohe died.
o See ver. 5.
18 And Jared lived an hundred and sixty and two years,8 and he begat Enoch.9
8 3382.
9 i.e. the dedicated one.
19 And Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years, and pbegat sons and daughters.
p See ver. 4.
21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years,1 and begat Methuselah.2
1 3317.
2 Gr. Mathusala, Lu. 3. 37, i.e. at his death shall be the breaking out, viz. of the flood.
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 rEnoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him.3
3 The briefest and most expressive religious biography upon record. Three hundred and sixty-five years of believing, humble, holy walking with God, have all their events, vicissitudes, hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows, conflicts and victories, compressed into one brief sentence!—C.
25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years,4 and begat Lamech.5
4 3130.
5 Heb. Lemech, not the descendant of Cain, ch. 4.18, i.e. poor, depressed, and smitten.
26 And Methuselah lived, after he begat Lamech, seven hundred eighty and two years, and sbegat sons and daughters.
s See ver. 4.
27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years:6 and the died.
6 This is the longest life on record, yet the biography of Methuselah is comprised in four things: he had a religious father, he had a family, he lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. Had the lives of Enoch and Methuselah been 'cunningly devised fables,' the inventor would have adorned them with all possible attractions. Moses dismisses in a few words, what in the hands of a fabulist would have filled many volumes.—C.
t See ver. 5.
29 And he called his name Noah,8 saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.9
8 Gr. Noe, Lu. 3.36; 17.26,27. Eze. 14.14,20. Is. 54.9. He. 11.7. 1 Pe. 3. 20; it signifies rest and comfort.
9 ch. 3.17-19; 4.12.
30 And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety and five years, and ubegat sons and daughters.
u See ver. 4.
Notes
Ver. 3. Seth was begotten, not in the image of God, in which Adam had been created, but in the image of fallen Adam, that is, with tendencies to evil in him. 'He was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him,' Ps. 51. 5. 'A child of disobedience—by nature a child of wrath, even as others,' the profane descendants of Cain not excepted, Ep. 2. 2, 3.—What was born of flesh, corrupted parents, was flesh infected with sinful corruption, Jn. 3. 6; Job 14. 4. Observe: believing parents produce children according to their nature, not according to their grace.
Ver. 22-24. The pure use of conjugal life does not hinder the strictest practice of holiness. Amidst all the cares and pleasures of a family, Enoch walked with God as his intimate and glorious Friend and Companion, who manifested to him his amiable perfections in their new-covenant form, and bestowed his gracious blessings and influences upon him, Mi. 6. 8; Ge. 6. 9. He walked after God, imitating him as his perfect and engaging pattern, and always dependent on his drawing and supporting grace, De. 13. 4; Ca. 1. 4; 8. 5. He walked before God, as his Master, Witness, and future Judge, always deeply impressed with a lively sense of his authority, presence, and purity, ch. 17. 1; 24. 40; Ps. 16. 8; 116. 9. He walked worthy of the Lord, fruitful in every good word and work, answerable to what God was to him, and had done or had promised to do for him, Col. 1. 10,—answerable to his clear foresight of the future judgment, Jude 14, 15; 2 Pe. 3. 11, 14. He walked in Christ, living by faith on him, and through the grace of God 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly,' Col. 2. 6; Ga. 2. 20; Tit. 2. 11, 12. Publicly to approve and reward his holiness, and to render him a type of Christ's ascension, and a pledge of the complete and eternal glorification of the saints, God took him out of this world to heaven, both soul and body: He. 11. 5, 'By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found on earth, for God had translated him to heaven; for he had this testimony—that he pleased God.'——[Ver. 22. There is a peculiarity in the Hebrew word here. It has the article; 'Enoch walked with the Elohim.' Probably this may be intended to show that idolatry was already practised, and that false gods were worshipped by many. Enoch devoutly worshipped and faithfully followed the true God. P.]
Ver. 29. Noah brought rest and comfort by the building of his ark, in which the seminary of both the world and church did rest and was saved, Ge. vii. viii. ix. And by his inventions in husbandry he freed men from much of their toil occasioned by the curse on the ground. Ge. 9. 20 with 3. 17, 18. And, as a type and a preacher of righteousness, he was a mean of directing them to everlasting rest and consolation in Christ, 1 Pe. 3. 18-20.—[Moses does not mention that Enoch was a prophet, but this information was supplied by Jude 14. So Moses does not expressly say of Lamech (not the son of Cain of the same name, but of Methuselah) that he was a prophet. Yet the name Noah, which he gives to his son, signifying rest or comfort, intimates a prophetic foresight of the work he was destined to accomplish in the salvation of the church by water (He. 11. 7; 1 Pe. 3. 20, 21), at the very time when his faith condemned, and water destroyed an unbelieving and rebellious world. C.]
Ver. 32. Japheth was the eldest of Noah's sons, ch. 10. 21, and Ham the youngest, ch. 9. 24: but Shem is first mentioned, because of his piety, and his being one of the Messiah's progenitors, and because his posterity are the principal subject of Moses' writings; for the same reason Abram, though born sixty years later than Haran, is put first in the family of Terah, ch. 11. 26 with 12. 4. In the early ages of the world Providence wisely ordered it that people should live long, for the speedy replenishing of the world, and for the more effectual propagation of the true religion and other useful knowledge; and, no doubt, the superior wholesomeness of the air, and of their diet, and their temperance in the use of it, contributed to promote this longevity.
Reflections.—Whilst I read, let me with deep concern cry out, 'How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!' Behold how death reigns, through sin, from Adam to Noah; and how sure, though sometimes slowly, it strikes! Ah! what a nothing must I, my age, and all my labours be in his sight, before whom the long, long lives of ten patriarchs and replenished world make so insignificant a figure! To be born, to breathe, to rear up a family, and give up the ghost, how mean! Yet this is all of man! and how few, in a replenished world, are worthy of God's love! Let therefore Enoch, who walked with God,—or rather Jesus, the dedicated servant of God,—Jesus, who set the Lord always before him, and did always the things which pleased the Father—Jesus, who foretold the breaking forth of the floods of wrath upon Judah, and the world of the ungodly—Jesus, who clearly predicted the last judgment, and the procedure in it, and who, 'having by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high'—be my pattern in life, and my forerunner to glory! And let him be my rest and consolation to comfort me concerning my labour and toil, to take away the curse from all my enjoyments, to afford security and rest through all my trials, till he bring me to his new world of righteousness and glory!