Lamech

Two men named Lamech in Genesis are easy to confuse, but this list follows the one in Seth’s line. He was the father of Noah, and at Noah’s birth he said, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands.” The chapter gives his years plainly: he lived seven hundred seventy and seven, and then “he died.” Luke lists him again among the ancestors of Jesus, reaching back through Noah to the earliest generations. He is a short entry, but his words about weary work and a hoped-for comfort show a father looking ahead at his newborn son.

8 verses

Genesis

Genesis 5:25

And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:

Genesis 5:26

And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:

Genesis 5:27

And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Genesis 5:28

And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

Genesis 5:29

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.

Genesis 5:30

And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

Genesis 5:31

And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

Luke

Luke 3:36

Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

The strikerdown; the wild man. (1.) The fifth in descent from Cain. He was the first to violate the primeval ordinance of marriage (Gen. 4:18-24). His address to his two wives, Adah and Zillah (4:23, 24), is the only extant example of antediluvian poetry. It has been called “Lamech’s sword-song.” He was “rude and ruffianly,” fearing neither God nor man. With him the curtain falls on the race of Cain. We know nothing of his descendants.

(2.) The seventh in descent from Seth, being the only son of Methuselah. Noah was the oldest of his several sons (Gen. 5:25-31; Luke 3:36).

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(powerful), properly Lemech.

(1.) The fifth lineal descendant from Cain. (Genesis 4:18-24) He is the only one except Enoch, of the posterity of Cain, whose history is related with some detail. His two wives, Adah and Zillah, and his daughter Naamah, are, with Eve, the only antediluvian women whose names are mentioned by Moses. His three sons, Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain, are celebrated in Scripture as authors of useful inventions. The remarkable poem which Lamech uttered may perhaps be regarded as Lamech’s son of exultation on the invention of the sword by his son Tubal-cain, in the possession of which he foresaw a great advantage to himself and his family over any enemies.

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(2.) The father of Noah. (Genesis 5:29)