Genesis 5

Genesis 5:1

THe Booke] The Hebrew word Sepher, a Booke, is derived from the word Saphar, importing number; and it noteth here a catalogue or number of persons descended by generation one from another; and therefore it is called the Book of the Generations: So Matthew 1:1.

likenesse of God] See the Annot. on Chap. 1. vers. 26.

Genesis 5:2

their name Adam] Adam is sometimes taken for the first man, as Chap. 2. vers. 23. Sometimes collectively for the species of mankind, male and female, as Chap. 3. 24. Sometimes indefinitely for any man, Genesis 9:6. Psalms 49:20. And by this communion of name is shewed not onely the union of both sexes in nature, but their communion both in duties and priviledges, Galatians 3:28. here Adam is taken in the second acception.

Genesis 5:3

in his owne likenesse] Here seemeth to be an opposition betwixt Gods Image and mans: God by creation made man in his Image, but man by procreation begets one not in Gods, but in his owne Image; that is, not onely like him in condition as a man, but in his corruption as a sinner, Job 14:4. for generation in the flesh and regeneration in the spirit proceed from different principles, that being humane, this divine; nor so in his owne likenesse as that his soule was begotten by Adam as well as his body; for as at first the soule had a different originall from that of the body which was not deduced out of the matter of which it consisted, but infused into the body afterwards; so hath it beene in the generation of man ever since: wherefore the fathers of our flesh, and the fathers of our spirit are expresly distinguished, Hebrews 12:9. See Numbers 16:22.

Genesis 5:4

sonnes and daughters] Some take upon them to tell how many, as Philo the Jew, and Epiphanius a Christian; the first assignes him twelve sonnes, the second thirty, and as many daughters, but how could either of them make proofe of their number, for there were no Registers in Adams dayes?

Genesis 5:6

Seth lived] Though Cain were elder then Seth, Moses draweth the descent from Atlam by the Line of Seth, and so sheweth the progresse of the Church, rather then the race of a meere carnall generation; for the true Church had its succession in the posteritie of Seth, though in an unequall degree both of piety, and of appearance or visibilitie.

Genesis 5:24

walked with God] This expression imports a briefe description of a truly religious man, who is not idle, stands not still, but makes a progresse forward as they that walke: and he walks not inordinately, but by a rule, Galatians 6:16. And his walking with God sheweth his sinceritie, in ordering his life not so much for applause and approbation of men, as for acceptation with God.

and he was not] Not dead, (as is said of the end of all the rest that are mentioned in this Chapter) or, Heb. and Not he, that is, not he died, or it was not with him as with others, by the common course of mortalitie; or he appeared not in the sight and societie of men. So Hebrews 11:5. the like phrase you may see Genesis 42:36. & Jeremiah 31:15.

for God tooke him] God translated him body and soule from this life to a better, from earth to heaven, that he might not see death, Hebrews 11:5. that is, not come under the expectation of death by sicknesse or decay, or under the power of it by parting his soule from his body.

Genesis 5:27

dayes of Methuselah] We find no register of any one who out-lived Methuselah since the creation of the world, or who lived nine hundred sixty nine yeares, as he did; yet some would make Adam of a longer life then he by equivalence, adding so many days to his age as passed in Methuselahs before he came to the ripenesse and perfection of his growth and strength; which from his birth they account to be about sixtie years; these added to Adams age will make him twenty one yeares elder then Methuselahs: but that is a conceit of much curiositie and little certaintie. It is more considerable, that neither of them, nor any other by their long lives could make any prescription of time against the doome of dissolution into dust; Chap. 3. 5: 19. and their death is so often remembred in this Chapter, to put the Reader in mind how God made good his commination of mortalitie, Chap. 2. 17. & 3. 19. whereof we (who in comparison of the long-lived Patriarchs are but dwarfes in years) should be mindfull every moment, since we are neerer our graves at our births then they when they had measured our seventie yeares (allotted to our lives, Psalms 90:10.) seven times over.

Genesis 5:29

And he called] That is, Lamech: not he of the posteritie of Cain, of whom see Genesis 4:23. but another Lamech descended of Seth.

shall comfort us] The name Noah if it be derived from Nahham, signifieth comfort: if from Nuahh, it importeth rest; and so it may note comfort derived from rest; or rest derived from comfort: but what manner of comfort is here meant, see the note following.

toile of our hands] Lamech here uttereth an hopefull presage concerning Noah, by whom he foretelleth some comfort to come to man-kind, wherein if he were guided by the Spirit of prophecie, (as the most learned conceive he was) he might fore-see not onely that Noah would prove a good man, for whose sake God would be good to others, as Genesis 18:26, &c. But secondly, that by Noah would be found out some more ready and easie way of tilling the ground; and it might be that before his time the earth was broken up, and tillage made with mans handy labour, using Spades or other such like Instruments: and Noah might invent the Plough and Harrow, and the drawing of them by Oxen or other beasts.

Genesis 5:32

five hundred yeares old] Heb. a sonne of five hundred yeares. Not compleat but current, that is, now living on towards the end of the five hundreth yeare since he was first a sonne to his father; as when a Levite entred upon his service of the Tabernacle, being a sonne of thirty yeares, Numbers 4:3. the meaning is, that his age passeth on towards the end of thirty yeares.

Noah begat] That is, began to beget: For he had not all three in one yeare; nor now first of all: for it is not like he continued five hundred yeares single, but that he was a father before this time, though his former children (it is like) were dead before the Flood.