Genesis 5:16
וַֽיְחִי מַֽהֲלַלְאֵל אַֽחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־יֶרֶד שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וּשְׁמֹנֶה מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנֽוֹת׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַֽיְחִ֣י מַֽהֲלַלְאֵ֗ל אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־יֶ֔רֶד שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֔ה וּשְׁמֹנֶ֥ה מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃
καὶ ἔζησεν Μαλελεὴλ μετὰ τὸ γεννῆσαι αὐτὸν τὸν Ἰάρεδ ἑπτακόσια καὶ τριάκοντα ἔτη, καὶ ἐγέννησεν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et vixit Malaleel, postquam genuit Jared, octingentis triginta annis, et genuit filios et filias.
Después del nacimiento de Jared, Mejalalel vivió ochocientos treinta años, y tuvo otros hijos e hijas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y vivió Mahalaleel, después que engendró á Jared, ochocientos y treinta años: y engendró hijos é hijas.
And after he had become the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse states that Mahalalel (ma.ha.lal.'El, H4111G) lived 830 years after fathering Jared (Ye.red, H3382G), and that during that span he fathered additional sons and daughters.
Key words
- y.Chi ("he lived", H2421) — qal narrative verb form, opening the sentence with "and he lived," setting the pattern used throughout the genealogy of Genesis 5.
- ho.li.D ("fathered", H3205) — hiphil infinitive construct with the causative sense "to cause to bear/beget"; here it functions as "after his fathering," governed by the preposition 'a.cha.Rei ("after", H0310A).
- o ("his", H9043) — pronominal suffix attached to ho.li.D, specifying "his fathering," i.e., Mahalalel's own act.
- she.lo.Shim ("thirty", H7970) plus me.'ot ("hundreds", H3967) and she.mo.Neh ("eight", H8083) — the numeral construction "thirty and eight hundred," i.e., 830, distributed across two sha.Nah ("year", H8141) nouns, one for each numeral.
- i.Yo.led ("he fathered", H3205) — hiphil narrative verb, same root as ho.li.D but in finite narrative form, marking the second begetting event ("and then he fathered").
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built in two clauses joined by narrative vav (va, H9001). The first clause states the total years Mahalalel lived following the birth of Jared, using the temporal phrase 'a.cha.Rei ho.li.D-o ("after his fathering") plus the object marker 'et- (H0853) and the name Ye.red. The numeral 830 is expressed as she.lo.Shim... sha.Nah ("thirty... year") followed by u-she.mo.Neh me.'ot sha.Nah ("and eight hundred year"), a construction where each numeral element pairs with its own noun sha.Nah ("year", H8141), a common feature of biblical Hebrew number phrases.
The second clause repeats the same verbal root H3205 but now as the narrative hiphil i.Yo.led ("and he fathered"), introducing the general statement that Mahalalel fathered ba.Nim ("sons", H1121A) and va.Not ("daughters", H1323G) during this period, without specifying number or names.
Differences between versions
The LXX gives the total lifespan after fathering Jared as ἑπτακόσια καὶ τριάκοντα ("seven hundred and thirty") years, differing numerically from the Hebrew's 830 (she.mo.Neh me.'ot, "eight hundred"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew numeral, rendering "octingentis triginta annis" (830 years), matching the Masoretic figure rather than the Septuagint's total.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.