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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. V.
This chapter is the only authentic history extant of the first age
of the world from the creation to the flood, containing (according
to the verity of the Hebrew text) 1656 years, as may easily be
computed by the ages of the patriarchs, before they begat that son
through whom the line went down to Noah. This is one of
those which the apostle calls “endless genealogies”
(1 Tim. i. 4),
for Christ, who was the end of the Old-Testament law, was
also the end of the Old-Testament genealogies; towards him
they looked, and in him they centered. The genealogy here recorded
is inserted briefly in the pedigree of our Saviour
and is of great use to show that Christ was the
“seed of the woman” that was promised. We have here an account,
I. Concerning Adam,
II. Seth,
III. Enos,
IV. Cainan,
V. Mahalaleel,
VI. Jared,
VII. Enoch,
VIII. Methuselah,
IX. Lamech and his son Noah,
All scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is
profitable, though not all alike profitable.
| Genealogies. | B. C. 3852. |
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1 This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day
that God created man, in the likeness
of God made he him;
2 Male and
female created he them; and blessed
them, and called their name Adam,
in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived a hundred and
thirty years, and begat a son in his
own likeness, after his image; and
called his name Seth:
4 And the
days of Adam after he had begotten
Seth were eight hundred years: and
he begat sons and daughters:
5 And
all the days that Adam lived were
nine hundred and thirty
years: and he died.
The first words of the chapter are the title
or argument of the whole chapter: it is the
book of the generations of Adam; it is the list
or catalogue of the posterity of Adam, not of
all, but only of the holy seed who were the
substance thereof
(Isa. vi. 13),
and of whom,
as concerning the flesh, Christ came
(Rom. ix. 5),
the names, ages, and deaths, of those
that were the successors of the first Adam in
the custody of the promise, and the ancestors
of the second Adam. The genealogy begins
with Adam himself. Here is,
I. His creation,
where we have a
brief rehearsal of what was before at large
related concerning the creation of man. This
is what we have need frequently to hear of
and carefully to acquaint ourselves with.
Observe here,
1. That God created man. Man
is not his own maker, therefore he must not
be his own master; but the Author of his
being must be the director of his motions
and the centre of them.
2. That there was
a day in which God created man. He was
not from eternity, but of yesterday; he was
not the first-born, but the junior of the creation.
3. That God made him in his own
likeness, righteous and holy, and therefore,
undoubtedly, happy. Man’s nature resembled
the divine nature more than that of any
of the creatures of this lower world.
4. That God
created them male and female
(v. 2),
for their mutual comfort as well as for the preservation
and increase of their kind. Adam
and Eve were both made immediately by the
hand of God, both made in God’s likeness;
and therefore between the sexes there is not
that great distance and inequality which
some imagine.
5. That God blessed them.
It is usual for parents to bless their children;
so God, the common Father, blessed his.
But earthly parents can only beg a blessing;
it is God’s prerogative to command it. It
refers chiefly to the blessing of increase, not
excluding other blessings.
6. That he called
their name Adam. Adam signifies earth, red
earth. Now,
(1.) God gave him this name.
Adam had himself named the rest of the
creatures, but he must not choose his own
name, lest he should assume some glorious
pompous title. But God gave him a name
which would be a continual memorandum to
him of the meanness of his original, and
oblige him to look unto the rock whence he
was hewn and the hole of the pit whence he
was digged,
Isa. li. 1.
Those have little reason
to be proud who are so near akin to dust.
(2.) He gave this name both to the man and
to the woman. Being at first one by nature,
and afterwards one by marriage, it was fit
they should both have the same name, in
token of their union. The woman is of the
earth earthy as well as the man.
II. The birth of his son Seth,
v. 3.
He was born in the hundred and thirtieth year
of Adam’s life; and probably the murder of
Abel was not long before. Many other sons
and daughters were born to Adam, besides
Cain and Abel, before this; but no notice is
taken of them, because an honourable mention
must be made of his name only in whose
loins Christ and the church were. But that
which is most observable here concerning
Seth is that Adam begat him in his own likeness,
after his image. Adam was made in the
image of God; but, when he was fallen and
corrupt, he begat a son in his own image,
sinful and defiled, frail, mortal, and miserable,
like himself; not only a man like himself,
consisting of body and soul, but a sinner
like himself, guilty and obnoxious, degenerate
and corrupt. Even the man after God’s own
heart owns himself conceived and born in sin,
Ps. li. 5.
This was Adam’s own likeness,
the reverse of that divine likeness in which
Adam was made; but, having lost it himself,
he could not convey it to his seed. Note,
Grace does not run in the blood, but corruption
does. A sinner begets a sinner, but a
saint does not beget a saint.
III. His age and death. He lived, in all,
nine hundred and thirty years, and then he
died, according to the sentence passed upon
him, To dust thou shalt return. Though he
did not die in the day he ate forbidden fruit,
yet in that very day he became mortal.
Then he began to die; his whole life afterwards
was but a reprieve, a forfeited condemned
life; nay, it was a wasting dying life:
he was not only like a criminal sentenced, but
as one already crucified, that dies slowly and
by degrees.
6 And Seth lived a hundred and
five years, and begat Enos:
7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight
hundred and seven years, and begat
sons and daughters:
8 And all the
days of Seth were nine hundred
and twelve years: and he died.
9 And Enos lived ninety years, and
begat Cainan:
10 And Enos lived
after he begat Cainan eight hundred
and fifteen years, and begat sons and
daughters:
11 And all the days of
Enos were nine hundred and five
years: and he died.
12 And Cainan
lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
13 And Cainan lived after
he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred
and forty years, and begat sons and
daughters:
14 And all the days of
Cainan were nine hundred and ten
years: and he died.
15 And Mahalaleel
lived sixty and five years,
and begat Jared:
16 And Mahalaleel
lived after he begat Jared eight hundred
and thirty years, and begat sons
and daughters:
17 And all the days
of Mahalaleel were eight hundred
ninety and five years: and he died.
18 And Jared lived a hundred
sixty and two years, and he begat
Enoch:
19 And Jared lived after
he begat Enoch eight hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters:
20 And all the days of Jared were nine
hundred sixty and two years: and
he died.
We have here all that the Holy Ghost
thought fit to leave upon record concerning
five of the patriarchs before the flood, Seth,
Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared. There
is nothing observable concerning any of these
particularly, though we have reason to think
they were men of eminence, both for prudence
and piety, in their day: but in general,
I. Observe how largely and expressly their
generations are recorded. This matter, one
would think, might have been delivered in
fewer words; but it is certain that there is
not one idle word in God’s books, whatever
there is in men’s. It is thus plainly set down,
1. To make it easy and intelligible to the
meanest capacity. When we are informed
how old they were when they begat such a
son, and how many years they lived afterwards,
a very little skill in arithmetic will
enable a man to tell how long they lived in
all; yet the Holy Ghost sets down the sum
total, for the sake of those that have not even
so much skill as this.
2. To show the pleasure
God takes in the names of his people.
We found Cain’s generation numbered in
haste
(ch. iv. 18),
but this account of the holy
seed is enlarged upon, and given in words at
length, and not in figures; we are told how
long those lived that lived in God’s fear, and
when those died that died in his favour; but
as for others it is no matter. The memory of
the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked
shall rot.
II. Their life is reckoned by days
(v. 8):
All the days of Seth, and so of the rest, which
intimates the shortness of the life of man
when it is at the longest, and the quick revolution
of our times on earth. If they
reckoned by days, surely we must reckon by
hours, or rather make that our frequent
prayer
(Ps. xc. 12),
Teach us to number our days.
III. Concerning each of them, except
Enoch, it is said, and he died. It is implied
in the numbering of the years of their life
that their life, when those years were numbered
and finished, came to an end; and yet
it is still repeated, and he died, to show that
death passed upon all men without exception,
and that it is good for us particularly to observe
and improve the deaths of others for
our own edification. Such a one was a strong
healthful man, but he died; such a one was
a great and rich man, but he died; such a
one was a wise politic man, but he died; such
a one was a very good man, perhaps a very
useful man, but he died, &c.
IV. That which is especially observable is
that they all lived very long; not one of them
died till he had seen the revolution of almost
eight hundred years, and some of them lived
much longer, a great while for an immortal
soul to be imprisoned in a house of clay.
The present life surely was not to them such
a burden as commonly it is now, else they
would have been weary of it; nor was the
future life so clearly revealed then as it is
now under the gospel, else they would have
been impatient to remove to it: long life to
the pious patriarchs was a blessing and made
them blessings.
1. Some natural causes may
be assigned for their long life in those first
ages of the world. It is very probable that
the earth was more fruitful, that the productions
of it were more strengthening, that the
air was more healthful, and that the influences
of the heavenly bodies were more benign,
before the flood, than afterwards. Though
man was driven out of paradise, yet the earth
itself was then paradisiacal–a garden in
comparison with its present wilderness-state:
and some think that their great knowledge
of the creatures, and of their usefulness both
for food and medicine, together with their
sobriety and temperance, contributed much
to it; yet we do not find that those who were
intemperate, as many were
were as short-lived as intemperate men generally
are now.
2. It must chiefly be resolved
into the power and providence of God. He
prolonged their lives, both for the more
speedy replenishing of the earth and for the
more effectual preservation of the knowledge
of God and religion, then, when there was
no written word, but tradition was the channel
of its conveyance. All the patriarchs
here, except Noah, were born before Adam
died; so that from him they might receive a
full and satisfactory account of the creation,
paradise, the fall, the promise, and those divine
precepts which concerned religious worship
and a religious life: and, if any mistake
arose, they might have recourse to him while
he lived, as to an oracle, for the rectifying of
it, and after his death to Methuselah, and
others, that had conversed with him: so great
was the care of Almighty God to preserve in
his church the knowledge of his will and the
purity of his worship.
| Translation of Enoch. | B. C. 3017. |
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21 And Enoch lived sixty and five
years, and begat Methuselah:
22 And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah three hundred
years, and begat sons and daughters:
23 And all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with God:
and he was not; for God took him.
The accounts here run on for several generations
without any thing remarkable, or any
variation but of the names and numbers; but
at length there comes in one that must not
be passed over so, of whom special notice
must be taken, and that is Enoch, the seventh
from Adam: the rest, we may suppose, did
virtuously, but he excelled them all, and was
the brightest star of the patriarchal age. It
is but little that is recorded concerning him;
but this little is enough to make his name
great, greater than the name of the other
Enoch, who had a city called by his name.
Here are two things concerning him:–
I. His gracious conversation in this world,
which is twice spoken of: Enoch walked with
God after he begat Methuselah
(v. 22),
and again, Enoch walked with God,
v. 24.
Observe,
1. The nature of his religion and the scope
and tenour of his conversation: he walked
with God, which denotes,
(1.) True religion;
what is godliness, but walking with God?
The ungodly and profane are without God in
the world, they walk contrary to him: but
the godly walk with God, which presupposes
reconciliation to God, for two cannot walk
together except they be agreed
(Amos iii. 3),
and includes all the parts and instances of a
godly, righteous, and sober life. To walk
with God is to set God always before us, and
to act as those that are always under his eye.
It is to live a life of communion with God
both in ordinances and providences. It is to
make God’s word our rule and his glory our
end in all our actions. It is to make it our
constant care and endeavour in every thing
to please God, and nothing to offend him.
It is to comply with his will, to concur with
his designs, and to be workers together with
him. It is to be followers of him as dear
children.
(2.) Eminent religion. He was
entirely dead to this world, and did not only
walk after God, as all good men do, but he
walked with God, as if he were in heaven already.
He lived above the rate, not only of
other men, but of other saints: not only good
in bad times, but the best in good times.
(3.) Activity in promoting religion among
others. Executing the priest’s office is called
walking before God,
1 Sam. ii. 30, 35,
and see
Enoch, it should seem, was
a priest of the most high God, and like Noah,
who is likewise said to walk with God, he
was a preacher of righteousness, and prophesied
of Christ’s second coming.
Behold, the Lord cometh with his holy myriads.
Now the Holy Spirit, instead of saying, Enoch
lived, says, Enoch walked with God; for it is
the life of a good man to walk with God.
This was,
[1.] The business of Enoch’s life,
his constant care and work; while others
lived to themselves and the world, he lived to
God.
[2.] It was the joy and support of
his life. Communion with God was to him
better than life itself. To me to live is Christ,
Phil. i. 21.
2. The date of his religion. It is said
(v. 21),
he lived sixty-five years, and begat
Methuselah; but
(v. 22)
he walked with God
after he begat Methuselah, which intimates
that he did not begin to be eminent for piety
till about that time; at first he walked but
as other men. Great saints arrive at their
eminence by degrees.
3. The continuance of his religion: he
walked with God three hundred years, as long
as he continued in this world. The hypocrite
will not pray always; but the real saint that
acts from a principle, and makes religion his
choice, will persevere to the end, and walk
with God while he lives, as one that hopes to
live for ever with him,
II. His glorious removal to a better world.
As he did not live like the rest, so he did not
die like the rest
(v. 24):
He was not, for God
took him; that is, as it is explained
(Heb. xi. 5),
He was translated that he should not
see death, and was not found, because God had
translated him. Observe,
1. When he was thus translated.
(1.) What time of his life. It was when he had
lived but three hundred and sixty-five years
(a year of years), which, as men’s ages went
then, was in the midst of his days; for there
was none of the patriarchs before the flood
that did not more than double that age. But
why did God take him so soon? Surely, because
the world, which had now grown corrupt,
was not worthy of him, or because he
was so much above the world, and so weary
of it, as to desire a speedy removal out of it,
or because his work was done, and done the
sooner for his minding it so closely. Note,
God often takes those soonest whom he loves
best, and the time they lose on earth is gained
in heaven, to their unspeakable advantage.
(2.) What time of the world. It was when
all the patriarchs mentioned in this chapter
were living, except Adam, who died fifty-seven
years before, and Noah, who was born sixty-nine
years after; those two had sensible confirmations
to their faith other ways, but to
all the rest, who were or might have been
witnesses of Enoch’s translation, it was a
sensible encouragement to their faith and
hope concerning a future state.
2. How his removal is expressed: He was
not, for God took him.
(1.) He was not any
longer in this world; it was not the period of
his being, but of his being here: he was not
found, so the apostle explains it from the
LXX.; not found by his friends, who sought
him as the sons of the prophets sought Elijah
not found by his enemies,
who, some think, were in quest of him, to
put him to death in their rage against him
for his eminent piety. It appears by his
prophecy that there were then many ungodly
sinners, who spoke hard speeches, and probably
did hard things too, against God’s
people
(Jude 15),
but God hid Enoch from
them, not under heaven, but in heaven.
(2.) God took him body and soul to himself in
the heavenly paradise, by the ministry of
angels, as afterwards he took Elijah. He
was changed, as those saints will be that shall
be found alive at Christ’s second coming.
Whenever a good man dies God takes him,
fetches him hence, and receives him to himself.
The apostle adds concerning Enoch
that, before his translation, he had this testimony,
that he pleased God, and this was the
good report he obtained. Note,
[1.] Walking
with God pleases God.
[2.] We cannot
walk with God so as to please him, but by
faith.
[3.] God himself will put an honour
upon those that by faith walk with him so as
to please him. He will own them now, and
witness for them before angels and men at
the great day. Those that have not this
testimony before the translation, yet shall
have it afterwards.
[4.] Those whose conversation
in the world is truly holy shall find
their removal out of it truly happy. Enoch’s
translation was not only an evidence to faith
of the reality of a future state, and of the possibility
of the body’s existing in glory in that
state; but it was an encouragement to the
hope of all that walk with God that they
shall be for ever with him: signal piety shall
be crowned with signal honours.
25 And Methuselah lived a hundred
eighty and seven years, and
begat Lamech:
26 And Methuselah
lived after he begat Lamech seven
hundred eighty and two years, and
begat sons and daughters:
27 And
all the days of Methuselah were nine
hundred sixty and nine years: and
he died.
Concerning Methuselah observe,
1. The
signification of his name, which some think
was prophetical, his father Enoch being a
prophet. Methuselah signifies, he dies, or
there is a dart, or, a sending forth, namely,
of the deluge, which came the very year that
Methuselah died. If indeed his name was
so intended and so explained, it was fair
warning to a careless world, a long time before
the judgment came. However, this is
observable, that the longest liver that ever
was carried death in his name, that he might
be reminded of its coming surely, though it
came slowly.
2. His age: he lived nine
hundred and sixty-nine years, the longest we
read of that ever any man lived on earth;
and yet he died. The longest liver must die
at last. Neither youth nor age will discharge
from that war, for that is the end of all men:
none can challenge life by long prescription,
nor make that a plea against the arrests of
death. It is commonly supposed that Methuselah
died a little before the flood; the
Jewish writers say, “seven days before,” referring
to
and that he was taken
away from the evil to come, which goes upon
this presumption, which is generally received,
that all the patriarchs mentioned in this
chapter were holy good men. I am loth to
offer any surmise to the contrary; and yet I
see not that this can be any more inferred
from their enrollment here among the ancestors
of Christ than that all those kings of
Judah were so whose names are recorded in
his genealogy, many of whom, we are sure,
were much otherwise: and, if this be questioned,
it may be suggested as probable that
Methuselah was himself drowned with the
rest of the world; for it is certain that he
died that year.
| Account of Noah. | B. C. 2448. |
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28 And Lamech lived a hundred
eighty and two years, and begat a
son:
29 And 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.
30 And Lamech lived after he begat
Noah five hundred ninety and five
years, and begat sons and daughters:
31 And all the days of Lamech were
seven hundred seventy and seven
years: and he died.
32 And Noah
was five hundred years old: and Noah
begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Here we have the first mention of Noah, of
whom we shall read much in the following
chapters. Observe,
I. His name, with the reason of it: Noah
signifies rest; his parents gave him that
name, with a prospect of his being a more
than ordinary blessing to his generation:
This same shall comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground
which the Lord hath cursed. Here is,
1. Lamech’s
complaint of the calamitous state of human
life. By the entrance of sin, and the entail
of the curse for sin, our condition has become
very miserable: our whole life is spent
in labour, and our time filled up with continual
toil. God having cursed the ground,
it is as much as some can do, with the utmost
care and pains, to fetch a hard livelihood
out of it. He speaks as one fatigued with
the business of this life, and grudging that
so many thoughts and precious minutes,
which otherwise might have been much better
employed, are unavoidably spent for the support
of the body.
2. His comfortable hopes
of some relief by the birth of this son: This
same shall comfort us, which denotes not
only the desire and expectation which parents
generally have concerning their children
(that, when they grow up, they will be comforts
to them and helpers in their business,
though they often prove otherwise), but an
apprehension and prospect of something more.
Very probably there were some prophecies
that went before of him, as a person that
should be wonderfully serviceable to his generation,
which they so understood as to
conclude that he was the promised seed, the
Messiah that should come; and then it intimates
that a covenant-interest in Christ as
ours, and the believing expectation of his coming,
furnish us with the best and surest
comforts, both in reference to the wrath and
curse of God which we have deserved and to
the toils and troubles of this present time of
which we are often complaining. “Is Christ
ours? Is heaven ours? This same shall comfort
us.“
II. His children, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
These Noah begat (the eldest of these) when
he was 500 years old. It should seem that
Japheth was the eldest
(ch. x. 21),
but Shem
is put first because on him the covenant was
entailed, as appears by
where God
is called the Lord God of Shem. To him, it
is probable, the birth-right was given, and
from him, it is certain, both Christ the head,
and the church the body, were to descend.
Therefore he is called Shem, which signifies a
name, because in his posterity the name of
God should always remain, till he should
come out of his loins whose name is above
every name; so that in putting Shem first
Christ was, in effect, put first, who in all
things must have the pre-eminence.
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