Genesis 5:22

Summary

Genesis 5:22 states that Enoch hithalekh ("walked about", H1980) et ha-Elohim ("with God", H0430) for three hundred years after fathering Methuselah, and that during this time he fathered other sons and daughters.

Key words

va-yit'halekh ("and he walked about", H1980) — hithpael stem, reflexive/iterative form of the verb "to walk," suggesting repeated or habitual back-and-forth movement, joined to the narrative vav.

et ha-Elohim ("with God", H0854 + H0430) — the preposition et ("with") followed by ha-Elohim, "the God," a plural noun form (grammatically plural though referring to a singular deity in this construction), marking the entity accompanied.

acharei ("after", H0310) — construct form of a word meaning "after," here governing the following infinitive clause, establishing the temporal sequence for the three hundred years.

holido ("his fathering", H3205) — hiphil (causative) infinitive with a pronominal suffix "his," literally "his causing-to-be-born," referring to the act of fathering Methuselah.

va-yoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil narrative form of the same root as holido, now in finite verbal form, continuing the narrative chain to describe additional offspring.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around two verbs from different stems of the same idea of "walking" and "fathering." The main clause opens with va-yit'halekh chanokh et ha-Elohim — "and Enoch walked about with God" — using the hithpael stem, which in Biblical Hebrew often carries a reflexive or repetitive nuance, here suggesting continuous or repeated movement "with God" rather than a single act. This clause is immediately followed by a temporal specification: acharei holido et-metushelach, "after his fathering of Methuselah," using an infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix rather than a finite verb, which grammatically subordinates this fact as background information rather than a separate narrative event.

The duration — shelosh me'ot shanah, "three hundred of years" — is attached to the walking-with-God clause, indicating the count applies to the period of that "walking," not necessarily to Enoch's total lifespan at this point. The narrative then resumes with va-yoled banim u-vanot, "and he fathered sons and daughters," using the same root as holido but now as a finite verb in the narrative chain, marking it as a subsequent reported event alongside the walking rather than subordinate to it.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-yit'halekh... et ha-Elohim as euērestēsen... tō theō ("he was well-pleasing to God"), differing from the Hebrew's "walked with," and gives the duration as diakosia etē ("two hundred years") rather than the Hebrew's three hundred. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's verb sense more closely with ambulavit... cum Deo ("walked with God") and retains trecentis annis ("three hundred years"), matching the Hebrew count. The BSB and RV1909 both preserve "three hundred years" and the walking/companionship sense, while SBLIBRE renders the verb interpretively as "lived in intimate communion with God."