Genesis 5:25

Summary

Genesis 5:25 states that Methuselah lived a total of 187 years before fathering Lamech, expressed in Hebrew through a sequence of three number units (seven, eighty, hundred) each linked to the noun "year." The verse follows the fixed genealogical formula of Genesis 5: total years lived until the birth of the named son.

Key words

• y.Chi ("he lived", H2421) — qal verb in narrative (wayyiqtol) form, opening the clause with the standard "and he lived" pattern used throughout the Genesis 5 genealogy.
• She.va' ("seven", H7651) — cardinal number, common gender, singular; the smallest unit, placed first in the sequence.
• she.mo.Nim ("eighty", H8084) — cardinal number, masculine plural; the tens unit, joined to the first by the conjunction u ("and", H9002).
• me.'At ("one hundred", H3967) — cardinal number, feminine singular, in construct state ("hundred of..."), the largest unit, closing the numerical sequence.
• i.Yo.led ("he fathered", H3205) — hiphil (causative) verb in narrative form, indicating the causative sense "he caused to be born" / "he fathered," followed by the direct object marker 'et- (H0853) before the name La.mekh ("Lamech", H3929).

What the text says

The Hebrew numerical expression is built as three separate number-plus-noun units: sheva ("seven") combines with u-shmonim shanah ("and eighty year[s]"), and this whole phrase is followed by u-me'at shanah ("and hundred year[s]"). The noun shanah ("year", H8141) appears twice — once attached to "eighty" and once attached to "hundred" — but not attached to "seven," which stands alone as the units digit before joining the tens. This produces a units-tens-hundreds sequence (7, then 80, then 100), a structure shared with other ages recorded in the Genesis 5 genealogy.

The clause is framed by two narrative (wayyiqtol) verbs: y.Chi ("he lived") opens the verse and i.Yo.led ("he fathered") closes it, both marked by the narrative va prefix (H9001) that chains the sentence to the surrounding genealogical sequence. The hiphil form of i.Yo.led carries a causative nuance — literally "he caused [a son] to be born" — distinct from a simple qal "he was born." The object marker 'et- (H0853) before Lamekh signals that Lamech is the direct object of the fathering, though the marker itself has no independent gloss.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents the age in ascending order — seven, eighty, then hundred (7+80+100). The LXX (Ἑκατὸν καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα ἑπτὰ, "hundred and eighty seven") and the Vulgate (centum octoginta septem, "hundred eighty seven") both render the same total of 187 years but in descending order — hundred, eighty, seven — reflecting a different sequencing convention rather than a different numerical value.