Genesis 5King James Version
A genealogy from Adam to Noah, ten generations. Each line follows the same pattern: he lived this many years, fathered sons and daughters, and died. Methuselah lives the longest at 969 years. Enoch is the exception. He walked with God, and was not, for God took him.
A genealogy runs from Adam to Noah through ten generations. Each entry names the patriarch, his age when his key son is born, remaining years, and death. The rhythm is relentless: and he died, and he died, and he died. The exception is Enoch, who walks with God and does not die. Noah arrives at the end as a note of hope.
Time passes, death comes for everyone, and yet God keeps a line alive through the long centuries between Eden and the flood.
24: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Every other name ends in death. Enoch ends in a mystery, and three words break the pattern of an entire chapter.
The ages recorded here are enormous, reaching nearly a thousand years for Methuselah. Ancient Near Eastern king lists also record rulers with absurdly long reigns before the flood and shorter ones after. The text may be using this convention to signal that a different era is ending. What matters is the trajectory: the world is aging toward a crisis.
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch who does not die, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah who closes the list.
The genealogy is not filler. It connects the creation to the flood, grounds the story in time, and insists these are real people in a real sequence. Enoch becomes a figure of enormous interest in later Jewish literature as the one who was taken without dying, a forerunner of resurrection hope.
For when loss has stacked up and the world feels like nothing but endings. Enoch is placed here deliberately, one quiet interruption in a chapter of deaths, a hint that the pattern is not final.
1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
2Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
3And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
4And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
5And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
6And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
7And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
9And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
10And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
12And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
18And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
32And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.