Lemech למך
the ninth generation from Adam, father of Noach
Lemech was born to Metushelach in 874 and lived seven hundred and seventy-seven years—nearly two hundred fewer than his father.
He is the only man in the fifth chapter of whom more than a number is said. At his son's birth he says: "this one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, out of the ground which the Lord has cursed"—and calls him Noach, from nechama, comfort. The father named the son for a hope that came true, but not as he expected.
He died in 1651—five years before the Flood, seeing neither the waters nor his son's deliverance. His father Metushelach outlived him and died in the very year of the Flood.
This Lemech is not to be confused with the Lemech of Kayin's line (Bereshit 4:18–24), a different man, of whom tradition tells that he killed Kayin himself by accident while hunting.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereshit 5:25–31 — the years of birth and life in the inventory of chapter five
- I Chronicles 1:1–4 — the same line from Adam to the sons of Noah, repeated in the Writings a thousand years after the Torah
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.