Genesis 5:28

Summary

Genesis 5:28 states that Lamech lived a certain number of years — two, eighty, and a hundred, i.e. 182 — and then fathered a son. The verse uses the standard genealogical formula of the chapter: age at fatherhood followed by the birth notice.

Key words

• va-yechi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the sequential opening of the genealogical notice, "and then he lived."
• shtayim ("two", H8147) — feminine dual cardinal number, the first element of the compound age formula (units stated before tens).
• shmonim ("eighty", H8084) — masculine plural cardinal, the tens element; joined to shtayim by the conjunction u ("and", H9002).
• me'at ("hundred", H3967) — feminine singular construct cardinal, "a hundred of," governing the second shanah ("year", H8141) to form the hundreds element of the age.
• va-yoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil (causative) verb with narrative vav, "and he caused to be born," i.e. he begot; closes the formula with the birth of ben ("a son", H1121A).

What the text says

The Hebrew age is built by adding three numerical blocks, each linked to a repeated noun shanah ("year," H8141): "two and eighty year(s)" (shtayim u-shmonim shanah) plus "and a hundred of year(s)" (u-me'at shanah). This additive, unit-tens-hundreds order (2 + 80 + 100 = 182) is typical of the numerical style in Genesis 5's genealogical list. The verb va-yoled is in the hiphil stem, which is causative in form though functioning here as the ordinary verb for begetting a child, matching the pattern used throughout the chapter for each patriarch's fatherhood notice. The son is introduced simply as ben ("a son," H1121A), without a name in this verse; the name appears in the following verse of the passage's broader context, not shown here.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew total (2 + 80 + 100) yields 182 years, matching the Vulgate's centum octoginta duobus annis ("182 years") and the Spanish/English translations given (182). The LXX (Swete text), however, gives ἑκατὸν ὀγδοήκοντα ὀκτὼ ἔτη, "one hundred eighty-eight years" (188), diverging from both the Hebrew figure and the Vulgate's rendering. The LXX also lacks an explicit equivalent for the repeated construct pattern seen in Hebrew, simply stating the total as a single Greek numeral phrase rather than building it from separate additive elements.