NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible | Page 30
34 | Genesis 5:23
sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived
a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully
with God; b then he was no more, because God
took him away. c
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he
became the father of Lamech. 26 After he be
came the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived
782 years and had other sons and daughters.
27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969
years, and then he died.
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had
a son. 29 He n
amed him Noah a and said, “He
will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of
our hands caused by the ground the Lord has
cursed. d ” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived
595 years and had other sons and daughters.
31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years,
and then he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became
the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
5:24 b ver 22 c 2Ki 2:1,
11; Heb 11:5
5:29 d Ge 3:17;
Ro 8:20
6:1 e Ge 1:28
6:3 f Isa 57:16
g Ps 78:39
6:4 h Nu 13:33
6:5 i Ge 8:21; Ps 14:1‑3
6:6 j 1Sa 15:11, 35;
Isa 63:10
Wickedness in the World
6
When human beings began to increase in
number on the earth e and daughters were
born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the
daughters of humans were beautiful, and they
Sumerian King List, ca. 1800 BC, records
married any of them they c hose. 3 Then the
kings who reigned tens of thousands of
Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with b hu
years “Before the Flood.” Gen 5 also records
ancient ancestors.
mans forever, f for they are mortal c ; g their days
will be a hundred and twenty years.”
Sumerian King List giving rulers from ‘before the Flood’
to King Sin-magir of Isin (ca.1827 – 17 BC) inscribed in
4 The Nephilim h were on the e
arth in t hose
cuneiform script, probably from Larsa, Iraq, Sumerian/
days — and also afterward — when the sons of
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/
God went to the daughters of humans and had
Bridgeman Images
children by them. They were the heroes of old,
men of renown.
5 The Lord saw how g
reat the wickedness of the human race had become on the e
arth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. i
6 The Lord regretted j that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was
deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race
I have created — and with them the ani m
als, the b
irds and the creatures that move a
long
a 29
Noah sounds like the Hebrew for comfort. b 3 Or My spirit will not remain in c 3 Or corrupt
5:23 365 years. There are also 365 days in a
solar year. Enoch became famous for his
faithfulness to God and as one who knew
much about God (Jude 14 – 15).
5:24 God took him. The seventh from Adam
does not die like the others (cf. the sev-
enth day of creation [2:2 – 3], which does
not end like the other six days). Enoch’s
acceptance by God gives hope to his con-
temporaries as well as those who read this
account.
5:25 Lamech. Meaning unknown. Like the
Lamech of Cain’s line, this Lamech brings
the genealogy to an end with a statement.
Whereas Cain’s Lamech looks backward and
stresses vengeance and violence (4:23 – 24),
this Lamech looks forward to one who will
bring “comfort” (5:29), which in Hebrew
sounds like “Noah.”
5:27 969 years. Methuselah, the longest liv-
ing person in the Bible, dies in the year of
the flood (see 5:25,28; 7:6, where 187 + 182 +
600 = 969).
5:31 777 years. This lifespan, composed of the
number “7,” symbolizes a perfect and com-
plete number of years.
6:1 – 8 Wickedness in the World. Violence con-
tinues to grow (cf. ch. 4) and leads to contin-
ual thoughts and acts of evil that bring God’s
judgment on the world.
6:1 increase. Humans continue to “increase in
number” as God commanded (1:28), but they
are corrupt.
6:2 sons of God. Four options explain this
phrase: (1) They are angels. This is what the
phrase refers to elsewhere in the OT (see Job
1:6; 2:1; 38:7 and NIV text notes; cf. Pss 29:1;
89:6) except for a related expression in Hos
1:10. Mark 12:25 may suggest that angels do
not marry, but Mark 12 refers to angels who
are in heaven fulfilling their roles, not in a
fallen state. (Compare 2 Pet 2:4 – 5, Jude 5 – 6,
and the tradition of these angels as “Watch-
ers” in some strands of Judaism.) (2) They are
sons of Cain. But given how ch. 4 describes
them, it is surprising that they would be
called “sons of God.” (3) They are sons of Seth.
(4) They are otherwise unknown kings. But
why call them “sons of God”? Some commen-
tators combine two or more explanations.
6:3 a hundred and twenty years. God limits
the life span of humans because of their in-
creasing sin and increasing numbers so that
they cannot do more violence. If Abraham
lived 175 years (25:7) and Isaac lived 180 years
(35:28), how can this statement be true? Ei-
ther it describes the number of years remain-
ing to the flood and the destruction of all of
that sinful generation or it is a general obser-
vation about human life spans (and not true
in every case).
6:4 Nephilim. The Hebrew word means
“fallen ones.” They also appear much later
(Num 13:33). They are not an ethnic group but
a social group of warriors, usually past “he-
roes” of legendary power. Here they illustrate
the extent of violence in the world.
6:5 This concisely describes total depravity,
which continues after the flood (8:21).
6:6 regretted. Does sin cause God to change
his mind? Elsewhere the answer is no (Mal 3:6;
Heb 6:17; Jas 1:17). Yet some passages suggest
the opposite (1 Sam 15:11 [but see v. 29]; Jonah
3:10). God is involved personally with human-
ity. While his final purpose for humanity does
not change, his mea