A New Beginning (Gen 4:26)

You Can’t Go Home Again

²⁶ To Seth too a son was born וּלְשֵׁ֤ת גַּם־הוּא֙ יֻלַּד־בֵּ֔ן

We’ve seen this “too” before; NJPS may be the best at indicating what work it’s doing in this phrase: “And to Seth, in turn, a son was born.” That is, first a son is born to Adam, and then a son is born גם gam ‘too’ to Seth. Just as Genesis 1 showed us plants with their own seed — meaning they could now reproduce indefinitely without having to bother God about it — we see that the זֶ֣רַע אַחֵ֔ר zéra aḥer ‘other offspring’ is also to be taken literally as “another seed.” The human race will continue.