Genesis 5

— of all which they chose.] Whomsoever they liked, without regard to any thing else but their beauty. It is supposed, that the Cainites spent their time in feasting, musick, dancing, and sports: this allured the children of Seth to come down from the mountainous country, which under a solemn injunction from their godly forefathers they inhabited; and marry with the descendants of Cain. The consequence was all manner of impurity, impiety, idolatry, rapine, and violence. For “evil communications” naturally “corrupt good manners.” And so the example of the wicked prevailed, and by degrees consumed, with few exceptions, all remains of religion in the posterity of Seth. Moses takes notice of these things, that he may give the reason why the descendants of Seth, even those who sprung from that holy man Enoch, except Noah and his family, were overwhelmed with the deluge, as well as the family of Cain. Stackhouse.

These daughters of Cain proved to the sons of Seth what the Moabitish women were afterwards to the children of Israel, and what women of bad principles always have been, and always will be, to men of good ones, who are no wiser than to contract alliances with them in their state of error and delusion. Bp. Horne.

Genesis 5:24

24. — he was not.] Moses doth not say, that he died; as he doth of the rest in this chapter, both before and after; but that he “was not” any longer among men in this world; for “God took him,” or translated him to another place. Which plainly signifies the different manner of his leaving this world; inasmuch that the Apostle saith, “He did not see death,” Heb. xi. 5. Bp. Patrick.

God translated him either in soul or body, or both, to a place and state of happiness:—A most convincing argument and proof of a life after this; and sufficient, one would have thought, to have silenced the Sadducees, who received this book: but they had hardened their hearts. God gave the world this instance, perhaps to convince them, how he would have dealt with Adam, and all his posterity, had they continued in obedience to his command. Bp. Wilson.

“It is appointed unto all men once to die:” this is the general rule; but we meet with an exception to it in the case of Enoch; and another in that of Elijah. Thus it pleased God to vouchsafe the world two rehearsals of the ascension of the holy Jesus: one for the building up of those before the law, the other, of those under the law, in the faith of that great and important article; and both, that we of these latter days might admire the wisdom of God in foreshewing what hath been accomplished, and adore His mercy and power in the accomplishment of what was foreshown. Bp. Horne.

— God took him.] At the time appointed by the Father for the accomplishment of Enoch’s prophecy, when the Lord shall come to judgment with ten thousand of His saints, Jude ver. 14; that which was foreshewn by the translation of Enoch, and fulfilled in the ascension of the natural body of Christ, shall be brought to pass likewise in His mystical body, the Church, and the members thereof. They shall “not be found” in the ruins of a burning world, because God shall have “translated” them to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them. This is but the completion of that great

Genesis 5:29

29. — he called his name Noah.] Which signifies rest; or refreshment, which proceeds from rest and quiet: because, as his father foretold of him, “This same shall comfort us.” Some think that his father expected him to be the promised Seed. In fact, he brought “comfort” and “rest” to mankind, by improving the art of husbandry, and so easing men as to the toil of their hands; by planting a vineyard, and finding out the art of making wine, which cheers the heart and revives the spirits of men, that are spent with labour; and by restoring the world, after it had been dispeopled by the flood, and upon his oblations receiving the assurance that “God would not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake.” Bps. Patrick and Kidder, Dr. Wells.

Genesis 5:32

32. — and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.] Of these three sons, the eldest was Japheth, as appears from chap. x. 21, the second was Shem, from x. 21, and the youngest Ham, from ix. 24. Nevertheless both here, and a little lower, Shem is named first; whether it was that the rights of primogeniture were transferred to him, though the sacred historian says nothing of it; or that God was minded thus early to show that He would not be confined to the order of nature in the disposal of His favours, which He frequently bestowed upon the younger children; or, what I think the most likely, because the nation of the Jews were to descend from him; and he and his posterity were to be the principal subject of this whole history. Stackhouse.

Chap. VI. ver. 2. — the sons of God] There are two famous interpretations of these words, besides that of some of the ancients, who took them to mean angels. Some understand by “the sons of God,” the great

C 2 The wickedness of the world. God’s wrath. and they took them wives of all which they chose.