Ancestor #9 (Gen 5:30–31)

The Genealogy of Adam

³⁰ Lemekh lived, after he fathered Noah, 595 years, and he fathered sons and daughters. ³¹ All the days of Lemekh were 777 years. Then he died.

וַֽיְחִי־לֶ֗מֶךְ אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־נֹ֔חַ חָמֵ֤שׁ וְתִשְׁעִים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵאֹ֖ת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃ וַֽיְהִי֙ כָּל־יְמֵי־לֶ֔מֶךְ שֶׁ֤בַע וְשִׁבְעִים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּשְׁבַ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיָּמֹֽת׃ ס

There’s little enough to say about these verses, which follow the same pattern we’ve seen eight previous times. (As always, we’re ignoring the different numbers given in some of the ancient translations.) We’ll talk about the Lemekh paragraph as a whole in just a moment.

Before we do that, though, I want to return to my remark in an earlier post that zeh, the first word out of Lemekh’s mouth (in this verse), is the first of five references to Version 2 of the creation story in this explanation of Noah’s name. The second was itzavon, the “grief” YHWH assigned to the first woman and the first man. Now we have seen three more: