Genesis 5:11

Summary

The verse states that the total number of days (years) of Enosh's life was nine hundred and five years, and then he died. It follows the standard formulaic pattern used throughout Genesis 5 to close each patriarch's genealogical entry.

Key words

• yihyu ("they were", H1961) — qal verb with narrative vav, third person plural, referring back to yeme ("days"); establishes the totality of days as the grammatical subject.
• yeme ("days of", H3117) — masculine plural construct noun, forming the phrase "days of Enosh," the standard idiom for a lifespan.
• chamesh ("five", H2568) and tesha' ("nine", H8672) — cardinal numbers in construct relationship with me'ot ("hundreds", H3967), together building the compound number 905.
• me'ot ("hundreds", H3967) — feminine plural noun agreeing with shanah ("year", H8141), the unit being counted.
• yamot ("he died", H4191) — qal verb with narrative vav, third person singular, closing the formula with the death notice.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on a construct chain: kol-yeme Enosh ("all the days of Enosh") functions as the subject of the plural verb yihyu ("they were"). This plural agreement is notable — the verb agrees with "days" (plural) rather than treating the lifespan as a single unit, a pattern consistent across the Genesis 5 genealogical formula. The numerical expression chamesh shanim u-tesha' me'ot shanah ("five years and nine hundred year[s]") places the smaller number before the larger, a common structure in Biblical Hebrew numeral sequences, and uses shanah in the singular after me'ot even though the total quantity is plural in sense — a feature of Hebrew numeral-noun agreement not visible in translation.

The verse closes with a second independent clause introduced by another narrative vav: va-yamot ("and he died"), a short qal verb in the third person singular. This two-part structure — first the lifespan total, then the death notice — is repeated with minimal variation for each figure in the genealogical list of Genesis 5.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) reverses the order of the numerals, giving "nine hundred and five" (ἐννακόσια καὶ πέντε) where the Hebrew places "five" before "nine hundred." The Vulgate (nongenti quinque anni) follows the Hebrew order, five before nine hundred. The Hebrew and Vulgate both preserve the two-clause structure (total of days; then death), while the LXX's Greek phrasing ("all the days... were nine hundred and five years") reflects the same two-part content despite the numeral order difference.