A Tale of Life, Death, and Redemption

23 Lamech said to his wives:

"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man for striking me.

24 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,

then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold."

Rashi

If Cain be avenged sevenfold—Cain, who killed intentionally, was given an extension until seven generations. How much more should I, who have killed unintentionally, be given many times seven.

Seventy-sevenfold—An expression meaning many sevens is used here. So did Rabbi Tanchuma explain it. This does not appear in extant editions of Tanchuma, but in Yalkut Shimoni it is quoted from Tanchuma. In Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 23:4: Lamech did not kill anyone, but his wives separated from him after they had fulfilled the commandment of propagation, because a decree had been issued to destroy Cain's seed after seven generations. They said, "Why should we give birth in vain? Tomorrow, the flood will come and inundate everything!" He answered them, "Have I slain a man for whom I should be wounded? Did I slay Abel, who was a man in stature and a child in years, that my seed should be annihilated for that iniquity? If Cain, who killed, was given an extension of seven generations, I, who did not slay—how much more so should I be given an extension of many sevens!" Now this is an absurd deduction from a minor to a major case, because if so, the Holy One, blessed be he, could not exact his debt nor fulfill his word.

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him."

26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

GEN 5

Adam's Descendants to Noah

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

Sanhedrin 38b:10

And this, i.e., that the verse in Psalms is stated by Adam, is what Reish Lakish says: What is the meaning of that which is written: "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Gen 5:1)? This verse teaches that the Holy One, blessed be he, showed Adam every generation and its law interpreters, every generation and its wise ones. When he arrived at his vision of the generation of Rabbi Akiva, Adam was gladdened by his law, and saddened by his manner of death. He said: "How weighty also are your thoughts to me, O God," i.e., how it weighs upon me that a man as great as Rabbi Akiva should suffer.

2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.

Mishneh Torah, Marriage 15:4

How many children is it necessary for a man to have fathered to be considered to have fulfilled this commandment? One boy and one girl, as implied by Gen 5:2: "He created them, a male and a female." If the son was a saris or the daughter an aylonit, he is not considered to have fulfilled this commandment.

3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Rashi

130 years—Until then, he had separated from his wife.

4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.

5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh.

7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan.

10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters.

11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.

12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel.

13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters.

14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.

15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared.

16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters.

17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.

18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch.

19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Rashi

Enoch walked—He was a righteous man, but he could easily be swayed to return to do evil. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be he, hastened and took him away and caused him to die before his time. For this reason, Scripture changed the wording in the account of his demise and wrote, "and he was not" in the world to complete his years.

For God took him—Before his time, like Eze 24:16: "behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you."

25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech.

26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters.

27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.

28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son

Rashi

He fathered a son—From whom the world was built.

29 and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands."

Rashi

This one shall bring us relief—He shall bring us relief from the painful toil of our hands. Before Noah came, they did not have plowshares, and he prepared these tools for them. And the land was producing thorns and thistles when they sowed wheat, because of the curse of the first man (Adam), but in Noah's time, it the curse subsided. If we explain the word according to its apparent meaning, "this one shall console us," the child should have been called Menachem, the consoler.

30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Rashi

500 years old—Said Rabbi Judan: What is the reason that all the generations fathered children at the age of approximately one hundred years and this one Noah, had children at the age of five hundred years? Said the Holy One, blessed be he, "If they his children are wicked, they will perish in the flood water, and it will be bad for this righteous man, and if they are righteous, I will have to burden him with making many arks." He closed his fountain, and he did not beget children until the age of 500 years, so that Japheth, his eldest son, should not be liable for punishment before the flood, as it is written (Isa 65:20): "For the young man shall die a hundred years old." This means: at the age when he will be liable for punishment in the future, and so it was before the giving of the law.

Shem, Ham, and Japheth—Now was not Japheth the eldest? i.e., Why is he mentioned last? But first you talk about the one who was righteous, born circumcised, and from whom Abraham was descended, etc.

GEN 6

Increasing Corruption on Earth

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.

3 Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years."

Rashi

My Spirit shall not abide . . . forever—My Spirit shall not complain and because of man.

Forever—For a long time. Behold my Spirit is quarreling within me whether to destroy or to have mercy. Let this quarrel in my Spirit not endure forever, i.e., for a long time.

For he is flesh—For this is in him that he is only flesh, and nevertheless, he does not subordinate himself before me. What if he were fire or a hard substance? i.e., How much greater would his insubordination be!

His days shall be—Until 120 years I will delay my wrath towards them, but if they do not repent, I will bring a flood upon them. Now if you ask: from the time that Japheth was born until the flood are only a hundred years, I will answer that there is no sequence of earlier and later events in the law. This decree had already been issued twenty years before Noah begot children.

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Rashi

And the Lord regretted that he had made—It was a consolation to him that he had created him man of the earthly beings, for had he been one of the heavenly beings, he would have caused them to rebel.

And it grieved him—He mourned over the destruction of his handiwork, like 2Sa 19:3: "The king is grieving for his son." This I wrote to refute the heretics: A Gentile asked Rabbi Joshua ben Korchah, "Do you not admit that the Holy One, blessed be he, foresees the future?" He Rabbi Joshua replied to him, "Yes." He retorted, "But it is written: and it grieved him to his heart!" He Rabbi Joshua replied "Was a son ever born to you?" "Yes," he the Gentile replied. "And what did you do?" he Rabbi Joshua asked. He replied, "I rejoiced and made everyone rejoice." "But did you not know that he was destined to die?" he asked. He the Gentile replied, "At the time of joy, joy; at the time of mourning, mourning." He Rabbi Joshua said to him, "So is it with the work of the Holy One, blessed be he; even though it was revealed before him that they would ultimately sin, and he would destroy them, he did not refrain from creating them, for the sake of the righteous men who were destined to arise from them."

And it grieved him—I.e., man grieved.

To his heart—The heart of the Omnipresent. It entered the thought of God to cause him man grief. The thought of the Omnipresent turned from the standard of clemency to the standard of justice. It entered his thoughts to reconsider what to do with man, whom he had made upon the earth.

7 So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.