lamech Summary and Overview

the strikerdown; the wild man. (1.) The fifth in descent from Cain. He was the first to violate the primeval ordinance of marriage (Gen. 4:18-24). His address to his two wives, Adah and Zillah (4:23, 24), is the only extant example of antediluvian poetry. It has been called "Lamech's sword-song." He was "rude and ruffianly," fearing neither God nor man. With him the curtain falls on the race of Cain. We know nothing of his descendants. (2.) The seventh in descent from Seth, being the only son of Methuselah. Noah was the oldest of his several sons (Gen. 5:25-31; Luke 3:36).

(powerful), properly Lemech. 1. The fifth lineal descendant from Cain. #Ge 4:18-24| He is the only one except Enoch, of the posterity of Cain, whose history is related with some detail. His two wives, Adah and Zillah, and his daughter Naamah, are, with Eve, the only antediluvian women whose names are mentioned by Moses. His three sons, Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain, are celebrated in Scripture as authors of useful inventions. The remarkable poem which Lamech uttered may perhaps be regarded as Lamech's son of exultation on the invention of the sword by his son Tubal-cain, in the possession of which he foresaw a great advantage to himself and his family over any enemies. 2. The father of Noah. #Ge 5:29|

LA'MECH (strong). 1. Son of Methuselah, and father of Noah. Gen 5:25, 1 Chr 24:31; 1 Chr 1:3; Luke 3:36. 1. The fifth descendant from Cain, the first polygamist, father of Jabal, Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments, and Tubal-cain, the worker of metals. He was the author of the earliest verses extant, in which he addresses his wives on account of having slain a man. Gen 4:18-24: "Adah and Zillab, hear my voice; Ye wives of Laraech, hearken unto my speech; For I have slain a man for my wound, And a young man for my bruise; Truly, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, And Lamech seventy and sevenfold."

1. Son of Methusael, of Cain's line; the first polygamist; by Adah begat Jabal and JUBAL, by Zillah Tubal-cain and Naamah. (See JABAL.) The three, Adah, Zillah, and Naamah, are the only antediluvian women named. See Genesis 4:23-24, "a man I slay (I am determined to slay), for my wound, a young man for my hurt; for (if) Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Lamech (will be avenged) seventy and seven fold": whoever inflicts wound or blow (stripe) on me, man or youth, I will surely slay; if God will avenge Cain's cause, when assailed, sevenfold, I have power in my hands (by the bronze and steel of Tubal-cain's discovery) to avenge myself ten times more. (Speaker's Commentary, Keri, and Delitzsch). In the common version Lamech calculates on impunity after homicide, because of his ancestor Cain's impunity; but it gives no explanation of why he should be avenged on any assailant ten times more than Cain. Possibly his reasoning is: I slew a youth for a wound and bruise he inflicted on me; as I did it under provocation, not as Cain without provocation and in cold blood, since Cain was protected by God's threat of sevenfold vengeance, I am sure of seventy and sevenfold vengeance on any assailant. This is the earliest example of Hebrew poetry, the principle of versification being parallelism, with rhythm, assonance, strophe, and poetic diction. Its enigmatical character shows its remote antiquity. Enoch's prophecy in Judges 1:14 was about the same age, and is also in parallelism. Delitzsch notices "that titanic arrogance which makes its own power its god (Habakkuk 1:11), and carries its god, i.e. its sword, in its hand," translated Job 12:6 "who make a god of their own hand." Lamech boasts thus, to assure his wives of security amidst the violence of the times especially among the Cainites, which precipitated God's judgment of the flood (Genesis 6:4; Genesis 6:11; Genesis 6:13). Poetry, God's gift to man, has been awfully desecrated, so that its earliest extant fragment comes not from paradise but the house of Lamech, a man of violence and lust. 2. Noah's father; son of Methuselah, in Seth's line (Genesis 5:28-29). A contrast to the Cainite Lamech and his profane and presumptuous boasting. In pious, believing hope, resting on the promise to Eve of a Redeemer, he by the Spirit foresaw in Noah ("rest or comfort") the second founder of the race, the head of a regenerated world; "this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." Feeling the weary toil of cultivating a ground yielding weeds sooner than fruits, Lamech looked for the ground's redemption from the curse in connection with Noah. It shall be so at the glorious coming of Noah's Antitype (Romans 8:19-23; Matthew 19:28; Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13).