Genesis 5:9

Summary

The verse states that Enosh ('e.No.osh, H0583) lived ninety years and then fathered Kenan (kei.Nan, H7018). It is part of the genealogical chain in Genesis 5, marking Enosh's age at the birth of his son.

Key words

• va.y.Chi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal verb with narrative vav, presenting the action as the next event in the sequence of the genealogy.
• 'e.No.osh ("Enosh", H0583) — proper masculine name, subject of the first clause.
• tish.'Im ("ninety", H8673) — cardinal number, masculine plural, modifying the noun that follows.
• sha.Nah ("year[s]", H8141) — feminine singular noun; in Biblical Hebrew a singular noun of this kind can follow a plural numeral, a common construction with "year."
• va.i.Yo.led ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil (causative) verb with narrative vav, indicating the causative sense "caused to be born," i.e., "fathered."
• 'et- (untranslated object marker, H0853) — marks kei.Nan as the direct object of the fathering action.

What the text says

The verse is built from two parallel narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive construction, a hallmark of Hebrew genealogical narration: "and he lived... and he fathered..." Each clause uses a verb in the narrative (vayyiqtol) form, which in this genre creates a chain of sequential events — first the span of years lived, then the birth of a descendant. The first clause, va.y.Chi 'e.No.osh tish.'Im sha.Nah, literally "and-he-lived Enosh ninety year," places the number before the noun sha.Nah ("year"), a standard Hebrew numeral-noun order where the singular noun form is retained even though the numeral is plural.

The second clause employs the hiphil stem of y.Lod ("to bear/give birth"), rendered here as yo.led ("he fathered"), which grammatically expresses causation: Enosh is not the one who bears but the one who causes Kenan to be born, i.e., the father. The direct object marker 'et- signals that kei.Nan is the grammatical object of this fathering action, distinguishing the son (recipient of the action) from the subject Enosh.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) gives Enosh's age as "ἑκατὸν ἐνενήκοντα ἔτη" — "one hundred ninety years" — where the Hebrew text (TAHOT) reads tish.'Im sha.Nah, "ninety years." The Vulgate (VULCLEM), with "nonaginta annis," and the Spanish and English translations shown (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) all align with the Hebrew figure of ninety years, diverging from the Greek numeral.