Genesis 5:12

Summary

The verse states that Kenan (Qeinan, H7018) lived seventy years and then fathered Mahalalel (Mahalal'el, H4111). It follows the standard genealogical formula of Genesis 5, marking the age at which each patriarch produced the named descendant.

Key words

• va-yechi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal verb with narrative vav, establishing the first event in the sequence: Kenan's span of living before the birth in question.
• Qeinan ("Kenan", H7018) — proper name, subject of the sentence, the patriarch whose lifespan is being recorded.
• shiv'im ("seventy", H7657) — cardinal number modifying shanah, giving the specific age at fatherhood.
• shanah ("year[s]", H8141) — feminine singular noun used collectively with the numeral to express "seventy years."
• va-yoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil verb with narrative vav, causative form indicating Kenan caused Mahalalel's birth (i.e., "begot" rather than simply "he was born").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential verbs joined by the narrative vav construction, both narrated from Kenan's perspective as subject: first va-yechi ("and he lived") governing the numeral phrase shiv'im shanah ("seventy years"), then va-yoled ("and he fathered") governing the object marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated direct-object marker) before the name Mahalal'el. The hiphil stem of yoled is causative, meaning the verb frames Kenan as the active cause of the birth, a nuance the English "became the father of" or Spanish "fue padre de" attempts to render but the more literal "he fathered" (RV1909, Vulgate genuit) preserves more directly.

The two-clause structure — lifespan-until-fatherhood, then implicit continuation of life afterward (treated in the following verse) — is the fixed template repeating throughout Genesis 5. The number shiv'im ("seventy") functions adjectivally with shanah, and Biblical Hebrew here uses the singular shanah even with a plural numeral, a common pattern with the word "year" in counted expressions.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text gives Kenan's age at fatherhood as shiv'im ("seventy", H7657) years. The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) renders this as ἑκατὸν ἑβδομήκοντα ("one hundred seventy") years, a numerical divergence from the Hebrew figure. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) follows the Hebrew tradition with septuaginta annis ("seventy years"), matching the Masoretic number rather than the Greek. Modern translations shown (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) also follow the Hebrew "seventy" figure.