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Lamech
Lamech holding the infant Noah, Print by James Tissot
Born	3130 BC (869 AM)
Died	2353 BC (1646 AM) (aged 777)
Children	Noah, and other sons and daughters
Father	Methuselah

Lamech (/ˈleɪmɪk/; Hebrew: לֶמֶךְ‎ Lemeḵ, in pausa לָמֶךְ‎ Lāmeḵ; Greek: Λάμεχ Lámekh) was a patriarch in the genealogies of Adam in the Book of Genesis. He is part of the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:36.

Lamech (Arabic: لامك, romanized: Lāmik) is also mentioned in Islam in the various collections of tales of the prophets who preceded Muhammad, which mentions him in an identical manner.

Bible narrative

And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

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. And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

— Genesis 5:28–31 King James Version

Biblical genealogy

Lamech is the eighth-generation descendant of Adam (Genesis 5:25), the son of Methuselah, and the father of Noah (Genesis 5:29), in the genealogy of Seth in Genesis 5. In Genesis 5:12-25, Lamech was a son of Methuselah, who was a grandson of Jared, who was a grandson of Kenan descended from Adam.

Genesis 5:28–31 records that Lamech was 182 (according to the Masoretic Text; 188 according to the Septuagint) years old at the birth of Noah and lived for another 595 years, attaining an age at death of 777 years, five years before the Flood in the Masoretic chronology. With such numbers in this genealogical account, Adam would still have been alive for about the first 56 years of Lamech's life.

1. ^ Genesis 4:1
2. Genesis 4:2
3. Genesis 4:25; 5:3
4. Genesis 4:17
5. Genesis 4:26; 5:6–7
6. ^ Genesis 4:18
7. Genesis 5:9–10
8. Genesis 5:12–13
9. Genesis 5:15–16
10. ^ Genesis 4:19
11. Genesis 5:18–19
12. Genesis 4:20
13. Genesis 4:21
14. ^ Genesis 4:22
15. Genesis 5:21–22
16. Genesis 5:25–26
17. Genesis 5:28–30
18. ^ Genesis 5:32

Prophetic naming

When Lamech named his son Noah, he prophesied: "This shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed." (Genesis 5:29) The people were cumbered with the toil of cultivating a ground that had been cursed in Genesis 3:17, and they hoped for relief through Noah. Albert Barnes noted: "In stating the reason of the name, they employ a word which is connected with it only by a second remove. נוּח nûach and נחם nācham are stems not immediately connected; but they both point back to a common root נח (n-ch) signifying 'to sigh, to breathe, to rest, to lie down.'" At Noah's sacrifice in the new world after the flood, the LORD said, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."

Tomb

According to a local Afghan legend, Lamech was buried 50 km (31 mi) from Mihtarlam. Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni built a tomb and gardens over the presumed burial site. Mihtarlam itself is said to be named after Lamech.

In popular culture

Lamech is portrayed by Marton Csokas in the 2014 film Noah, handing his son the skin of the serpent who tricked Adam and Eve to eat the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden, before he is murdered by Tubal-cain with a battle axe.

References

1. "Lamech." Dictionary.com.
2. Luke 3:36
3. Genesis 5:12–25
4. Genesis 5:28–31
5. ^ Larsson, Gerhard (1983). "The Chronology of the Pentateuch: A Comparison of the MT and LXX". Journal of Biblical Literature. 102 (3): 401–409. doi:10.2307/3261014. JSTOR 3261014.
6. Barnes' notes – Genesis 5:29
7. Genesis 8:20–21
8. "Afghanistan: Metar Lamech Shrine". www.culturalprofiles.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
9. Elphinstone, Mountstuart (2013). "Sultán Mahmúd. (997–1030.)". The History of India. pp. 532–579. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139507622.036. ISBN 978-1-139-50762-2. OCLC 889960651.

• Book of Genesis people
• Bereshit (parashah)
• Noah
• Prophets in the Hebrew Bible