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:
And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. For, `said she', God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain slew him.
What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight: How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
How then can man be just with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, That did seek after God. They are all gone aside; they are together become filthy; There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one `flesh' of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 5
Commentary on Genesis 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
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. 1:4), 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 in inserted briefly in the pedigree of our Saviour (Lu. 3:36-38), and is of great use to show that Christ was the "seed of the woman' that was promised. We have here an account,
Gen 5:1-5
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. 6:13), and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came (Rom. 9:5), 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,
Gen 5:6-20
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,
Gen 5:21-24
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:-
Gen 5:25-27
Concerning Methuselah observe,
Gen 5:28-32
Here we have the first mention of Noah, of whom we shall read much in the following chapters. Observe,