The descendants of Adam
1 This is the account of Adam’s descendants. When God created Adam he made him in the likeness of God;
2 male and female he created them; he blessed them and called them Man on the day they were created.
3 Adam was a hundred and thirty years old when he became father of a son born in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
4 After the birth of Seth, Adam lived for eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
5 Altogether Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years; then he died.
6 When Seth was a hundred and five, he became father of Enosh.
7 After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years. He had other sons and daughters.
8 Altogether Seth lived nine hundred and twelve years; then he died.
9 When Enosh was ninety years old, he became the father of Kenan.
10 After the birth of Kenan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and he had other sons and daughters.
11 Altogether Enosh lived nine hundred and five years; then he died.
12 When Kenan was seventy years old, he became father of Mahalalel.
13 After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years, and he had other sons and daughters.
14 Altogether Kenan lived nine hun dred and ten years; then he died.
15 When Mahalalel was sixty-five, he became the father of Jared.
16 After that, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.
17 All the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; then he died.
18 When Jared was a hun dred and sixty-two, he became father of Enoch.
19 After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived eight hun dred years, and he had other sons and daughters.
20 Altogether Jared lived nine hun dred and sixty-two years; then he died.
21 When Enoch was sixty-five, he became father of Methuselah.
22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters.
23 In all Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years.
24 After Enoch had walked with God, he disappeared because God took him up.
25 When Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven, he became father of Lamech.
26 After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and he had other sons and daughters.
27 In all Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years; then he died.
28 Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two when he became father of a son
29 and named him Noah, for he said, “He will console us in the hard toil and suffering of our hands, because of the soil that was cursed by Yahweh.
30 After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and he had other sons and daughters.
31 In all Lamech lived seven hundred and seventy-seven years; then he died.
32 When Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Sem, Ham and Japheth.
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Comments Genesis, Chapter 5
• 5.25 Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years! It was absolutely essential to give the idea of a long stretch of time from the be ginning of the world up to the ancestors of the people of God, and names could not be multiplied. Just as the Baby lonians before the flood had placed eleven kings with a fabulous life duration, the Israelites needed a few Methu selah. Besides they held that their distant ancestors had been better than themselves and for that reason had been rewarded with a very long life.
In this legendary list of the ancestors of humankind appears the name of Enoch the just one, whom God took up to heaven just as he did with Elijah (2 Kgs 2).