A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Psalm 25:14

Genesis 5

¹ This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him. — in the likeness of God; man is now a fallen being, yet these words are repeated to show that the Divine likeness was not lost, nor the primæval blessing bestowed at his creation revoked.

² Male and female created He them, and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. — he called their name Adam; he gave this name both to the man and the woman, being at first one by nature, and afterward one by marriage, it was fit they should both have the same name in token of their union.

³ And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. — in his own likeness, after his image; that is, Adam handed down to his posterity that Divine likeness which he had himself received.

⁴ And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters. — and the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years; the Septuagint has it as seven hundred; probably counting a hundred years later where Adam began to have other children; which Josephus agrees (Antiquities of the Jews: book I, chapter 2, section 3)

— and he begat sons and daughters; not only after the birth of Seth, but before, though we have no account from the Scriptures of any; and what their number is, either before or after;

— but Josephus says the number of children Adam had, according to the old tradition, was thirty three sons and twenty three daughters. Joseph. Antiquities of the Jews: book I, chapter 2, section 3, footnote 8

— below is from Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews: book I, chapter 2, section 3:

Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth, [for our discourse must now be about him,] after Abel was slain, and Cain fled away, on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two hundred and thirty years old; after which time he lived other seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed many other children,⁸ but Seth in particular.

As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavor to give an account of those that proceeded from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. 

All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order.

And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.

⁵ And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. — he was from thence sentenced the sentence of death, and liable to it; yea, death seized upon him till it brought him to the dust of it; his life, though so long protracted, was a dying life, and at last he submitted to the stroke of death, as all his posterity ever since;

— the MSG has these verses as:

When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was just like him, his very spirit and image, and named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Adam lived a total of 930 years. And he died. Genesis 5:3-5 MSG

⁶ And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. — and Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos. Not that this was his firstborn, no doubt but he had other children before this time; but this is only mentioned, because it carried the lineage and descent directly from Adam to Noah;

⁷ And Seth lived after he begot Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. — and begat sons and daughters; very probably both before and after Enos was born; but how many is not said;

⁸ And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. — and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years;

— Seth, according to Josephus (Antiquities: book 1 chapter 2, section 3), was a very good man, and brought up his children well, who trod in his steps, and who studied the nature of the heavenly bodies; and that the knowledge of these things they had acquired might not be lost, remembering a prophecy of Adam, that the world should be destroyed both by fire and by water;

⁹ And Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. — and Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan, but according to the Septuagint, a hundred and ninety years;

¹⁰ And Enosh lived after he begot Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Enos lived, after he begat Cainan, eight hundred and fifteen years; the Septuagint is seven hundred and fifteen;

¹¹ And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died. — he died in the year of his age nine hundred and five; and according to Gill, is AM 1340, and was buried in the holy mountain; 

¹² And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel. — and Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel; here the Septuagint adds an hundred years, as before;

¹³ And Cainan lived after he begot Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters. — eight hundred and forty years; the Septuagint has seven hundred and forty, which, when added to the years given him before, makes the same sum;

¹⁴ And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

¹⁵ And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begot Jared. — and Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared. A hundred and sixty, according to the Septuagint version;

¹⁶ And Mahalaleel lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁷ And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years; and he died.

¹⁸ And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and he begot Enoch. — and Jared lived an hundred and sixty two years, and he begat Enoch. Here the Septuagint agrees with the Hebrew text, and the Samaritan version differs, reading only sixty two;

¹⁹ And Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years; and so, the Septuagint version, but the Samaritan is seven hundred and eighty five;

²⁰ And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years; and he died.

²¹ And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begot Methuselah. — and Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah; here the Septuagint version adds again an hundred years;

²² And Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years; the Septuagint version is two hundred;

²³ And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years. — their lives a getting shorter, and now approximately half the age of those older patriarchs;

²⁴ And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. — and he was not, for God took him; instead of the mournful refrain when one died, we have here an early removal into another world, suggesting Enoch, in this special case, may have the highest form of blessing;

— “another world” may mean into heaven, where God’s throne is, where he is with the holy angels and other saints; Revelation: he could be one of the 24 Elders in Revelation?

— the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it; “behold, he was not with the sojourners of the earth; for he was withdrawn, and he ascended to the firmament by the Word before the Lord,”

Who are the 24 Elders in Revelation?

²⁵ And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begot Lamech. — and Methuselah lived an hundred and eighty and seven years, and beget Lamech; the Septuagint version is an hundred and sixty seven;

²⁶ And Methuselah lived after he begot Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Methuselah lived, after he begat Lamech, seven hundred eighty and two years; but the Septuagint version is eight hundred and two years, and so makes the sum total of his life the same;

²⁷ And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years; and he died. — and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty nine years, and he died; this was the oldest man that ever lived, no man ever lived to a thousand years;

²⁸ And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begot a son. — and Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat son; according to the Septuagint version he was an hundred and eighty eight years old; 

— Josephus says after the seventh generation, his posterity turned into wickedness:

Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. (Antiquities: book 1 chapter 3, section 1),

²⁹ And he called his name Noah, saying, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” — the Lord hath cursed; because of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed;

— this he spake, foreseeing what his son would be, and of what advantage to him and his family, and to the world: the earth was cursed for the sin of man immediately after the fall, and continued under it to this time, bringing forth thorns and thistles in great abundance of itself, which occasioned much trouble to root and pluck them up, and nothing else, without digging, and planting and sowing;

— the Message version is:

When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son. He named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us a break from the hard work of farming the ground that God cursed.” After Lamech had Noah, he lived another 595 years, having more sons and daughters. Lamech lived a total of 777 years. And he died. Genesis 5:28-30 MSG

³⁰ And Lamech lived after he begot Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety and five years; the Septuagint version is five hundred and sixty five;

³¹ And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years; and he died. — and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years, and he died; the Septuagint version he lived but seven hundred and fifty three;

³² And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. — and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth; not together, but one after another;

— Shem was an hundred years old two years after the flood, Genesis 11:10 he must be born in the five hundred and second year of his father’s age; so that it seems most probable that Japheth was the eldest.

— for more, see Japheth, the Eldest

— discrepancies of dates in Jospehus (Antiquities: book 1.1 chapter 3 section 3): “and this was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six [one thousand six hundred and fifty-six] years from Adam, the first man.”

Genesis 6

¹ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, — and it came to pass, when men began to multiply upon the face of the earth; either mankind in general, or rather the posterity of Cain;

— or the the posterity of Seth, or a mixture of the two; but then again, Josephus says the number of children Adam had, was thirty three sons and twenty three daughters;

² that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took for themselves wives of all whom they chose. — the sons of God saw the daughters of men; by the former, from God’s point of view, is meant the family of Seth, who were of good dispositions, virtuous and professedly religious;

— by the latter, the descendants of apostate Cain, the daughters of men; from God’s point of view, mixed marriages between parties of opposite principles and practice were necessarily sources of evils and corruption;

— persons of greatest eminency for place and power, for such are called gods, and children of the Most High, Psalm 82:6 ‘I have said, “Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High,”’ where, in contrast, also they are opposed to men, Genesis 6:7, that is, to meaner men.

³ And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” — my spirit shall not always strive with man; indicating his spirit strives with man up to a certain point; and there will a certain point beyond which he will not go; hence God reduced their days and it shall be an hundred and twenty years; given to them to repent;

⁴ There were giants on the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown. — there were giants on the earth in those days; before those intermarriages were beginning to take place, and these intermarriages bare children unto them, or giants unto them;

— the same became mighty, which were of old: like those that were of old before; hence, perhaps, there were now two sets of giants?

— or a third set, from the evil angels: as Josephus says:

“For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.” This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense, the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity; (Antiquities: book 1 chapter 3, section 1).

⁵ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagining of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. — and God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth; that it spread throughout the earth, wherever it was inhabited, both among the posterity of Cain and Seth, who now were mixed together;

⁶ And the Lord repented that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. — and it repented the Lord; not in the sense the Lord wished he haven’t created man, since he was able to declare the end from the beginning; but that it grieved him at his heart to see man sinned;

— Rashi: it was a consolation to Him that He had created him [man] of the earthly beings, for had he been one of the heavenly beings, he would have caused them to rebel.

⁷ And the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for I repent that I have made them.” — for I repent that I have made them; same in the sense that he was able to declare the end from the beginning; but that God grieved that his creation had sinned;

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. — but Noah found grace; this is evidence that grace found in the Old Testament; that is, Noah obtained mercy and favour from the Lord;

⁹ These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. — Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations; “Just” is, literally, righteous, one whose actions were sufficiently upright to exempt him from the punishment inflicted upon the rest of mankind;

¹⁰ And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. — Shem was an hundred years old two years after the flood, Genesis 11:10 he must be born in the five hundred and second year of his father’s age;

— so that it seems most probable that Japheth was the eldest; and born in the five hundred and first year of his age; though Shem is usually mentioned first, because of his superior dignity: Abraham and from whom king David and the Messiah was to spring from;

— for more, see Japheth, the Eldest

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. — and the land was corrupt, abominable, and other enormous crimes; in contrast with Noah, the rest of the race were corrupt; entirely depraved by sin;

¹² And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. — the land was corrupt; the earth was filled with violence, with their uncleanness and wickedness of various sorts;

¹³ And God said unto Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. — the end of all flesh is come before me; that is, it was determined to put an end to the lives of all men, and of all cattle, and fowl and creeping things on the earth;

— before an order is executed the case is presented to the sovereign, that it may finally be examined, and if approved, receive the judgement, upon which it becomes a decree: “I will destroy them with the earth.”

¹⁴ Make thee an ark of gopherwood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt cover it within and without with pitch. — make thee an ark, or chest; an oblong box; not capable of sailing, but intended merely to float; the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;

— the Targum of Jonathan says

“Make thee an ark of the wood of cedars; a hundred and fifty cells shalt thou make to the ark in its left side, and thirty and six in its breadth; and ten cabins in the midst, to lay up in them provision; and five repositories on the right, and five on the left; and thou shalt protect it within and without a pitch.”

¹⁵ And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. — the cubit is the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger;

— as, further, it was regarded as one-fourth of a man’s height, we may safely compute it at eighteen inches, except where the sacred or longer cubit is expressly mentioned; thus the ark was 450 feet long, 75 broad, and 45 in depth.

¹⁶ A window shalt thou make for the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. — it is not necessary to suppose that Noah and his three sons built this vast vessel with their own hands; he was probably a powerful chieftain, and many of the Sethites may have given him aid;

— the highest story was for men and birds; the second for provision for the brute creatures; the lowest for the beasts, under which was the bottom of the ark, which most probably was made sloping on both sides;

¹⁷ And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven; and every thing that is on the earth shall die. — every thing that is in the earth shall die; this limitation that the fishes are not included in the destruction because they did not live in the same element wherein men lived and sinned;

¹⁸ But with thee will I establish My covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife and thy sons’ wives with thee. — my covenant; there had been no covenant with Adam or with the Sethites, but in the higher state of things it began with Noah;

¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. — and of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark; that is, of fowls, cattle, and creeping things,

²⁰ Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. — they shall be male and female; not any two, but one male and one female, they are to come in pairs for propagation;

²¹ And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be food for thee and for them.” — and take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten; by man and beast;

²² Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. — thus did Noah as he began without delay to prepare the colossal fabric, and in every step of his progress faithfully followed the divine directions he had received.

~ by Joel on July 6, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses