Genesis 5:28

Study note

Setting — The narrator records a genealogical entry in the ancestral chronicle of Genesis 5, marking the moment Lamech reaches 182 years of age and fathers a son. This entry follows the death of Methuselah in Genesis 5:27 and precedes the naming of Noah in Genesis 5:29.

The words — The text uses וַיּ֖וֹלֶד (va/y.i.Yo.led), meaning “and he fathered,” to denote the birth event. The age is built with שְׁתַּ֧יִם וּשְׁמֹנִ֛ים שָׁנָ֖ה וּמְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֑ה (she.ta.yim u.sh.mo.nim sha.nah u.me.'at sha.nah), literally “two and eighty years and one hundred years.”

The thread — This age-plus-fathering formula structures the entire patriarchal list in Genesis 5:1–32. The pattern of recording lineage ages and offspring names continues in later genealogies such as Luke 3:36 and 1 Chronicles 1:3.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of the precise chronological framework the text establishes for human ancestry. It requires the reader to track the numerical progression of the line without adding theological commentary beyond what the immediate context provides.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.