Lamech is the name of two men in the
genealogies of Adam"Generations of Adam" is a concept in in the Hebrew Bible. It is typically taken as name of Adam's line of descent going through Seth. Another view equates the generations of Adam with material about a second line of descent starting with Cain in Genesis 4, while Genesis 5 is taken as the...
in the Book of Genesis. One is the seventh generation descendant of
CainCain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the Bible and Torah at and the Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one"...
(Genesis 4:18); his father was named Methusael and he was responsible for the "Song of the Sword." He is also noted as the first polygamist mentioned in the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
, taking two wives, Ada and Tselah. The other Lamech is an eighth generation descendant of
SethSeth , in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, is the third listed son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, and is the only other of their children mentioned by name. Traditionally, Adam had 33 sons and 23 daughters...
(Genesis 5:25). He is the son of
MethuselahMethuselah or Metushélach is the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, given as 969 years. The name Methuselah has become a general synonym for any living creature of great age.-Methuselah in the Bible:...
and was the father of
NoahNoah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Qur'an...
.
Because of the similarities between the two lines, critical scholarship generally regards both Lamechs as one and the same individual. Many conservative scholars reject this notion. One tradition from
Genesis RabbaGenesis Rabba is a religious text from Judaism's classical period. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical interpretations of the Book of Genesis ....
, relayed by
RashiShlomo Yitzhaki, better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh .Acclaimed for his ability to present the basic meaning of the text in a...
's comment on Genesis 4:22, indicates that Na'amah, the daughter of Tselah and Lamech, son of Methushael, was the wife of
NoahNoah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Qur'an...
, the son of the other Lamech (son of Methuselah).
Biblical context
Sandwiched between two genealogical lines, the passage describing Lamech, son of Methushael, descendant of Cain and his children is fairly substantive:
records that the other Lamech, the son of Methuselah, was 182 years old at the birth of
NoahNoah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Qur'an...
, and that he lived for another 595 years after this, making his age at death 777 years (or just a few years before the Flood). With such numbers in this genealogical account, calculations such as those of Archbishop Ussher would suggest that Adam was still alive for about the first 50 years of Lamech's life.
Names
There are various suggestions of the correct translations for the names:
| Name | Hebrew | Possible translations |
|---|
| Lamech |
לָמֶךְ |
Pauper (via Hebrew Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
), Priest/Servant of God (via AkkadianAkkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
) |
| Adah Adah may refer to:* Adah, the first wife of either Lamech or of Esau.* Adah, Pennsylvania.* Adah Isaacs Menken, an American actress, painter, and poet.* Adah Belle Thoms, an African American nurse of World War I....
|
עָדָה |
Ornament, Dawn |
| Zillah Zillah may refer to:Government*Zillah, a country subdivision in Bangladesh and Pakistan.Literature*Zillah, a vampire from Lost Souls, by Poppy Z Brite*Zillah, the wife of Abel in Cain, by Lord Byron...
|
צִלָּה |
Shadow |
| Jabal Variations of words Jabal, Jabel, Jebal, Jebel, Jbel, Djebel, Jibal, etc. have been used for the Arabic word "Jah-BAYL" meaning "mountain, hill or slope"...
|
יָבָל |
Shepherd |
JubalJubal , was the son of Lamech and Adah, a brother of Jabal, a descendant of Cain, according to the Bible. The ancestor of all who played the lyre and pipe...
|
יוּבָל |
The ram's horn, Musician, (also) stream |
| Tubal-Cain |
תּוּבַל קַיִן |
Thou wilt be brought of Cain (not translating Cain), Blacksmith (translating Cain) |
| Naamah Naamah or Na'amah is a figure in the Bible and Jewish mysticism.-In the Bible:* In Genesis 4:22, the NIV states: “Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah…. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron...
|
נַעֲמָה |
Beautiful, Pleasure |
The older
SeptuagintThe Septuagint , or simply "LXX", referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
, unlike the
Masoretic TextThe Masoretic Text is a Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible . It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private study...
, does not present the name
Tubal rather than
Tubal-Cain.
Translating the names as well, it is possible to read the text of the story of Lamech as:
- God's servant took two wives, light and darkness. The light brought forth the shepherd, who was the father of tent-dwellers, and herdsmen, and his brother was the musician, who was the father of harpists and pipers. But the darkness brought forth the blacksmith, the forger of brass
Brass is any alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin. Despite this distinction, some types of brasses are called bronzes. Brass is a...
, and of ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
, and his sister was pleasure.
Interpretation
When fully translated, the text has a strong resemblance simply to a basic mythology concerning the origin of the various forms of civilisation, the shepherds and musicians being products of the day, and pleasure being a product of the night. Blacksmiths, in carrying out their trade, are also associated with the darkness. Thus, in a sense, Lamech could be interpreted as a
culture heroA culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, songs, tradition and religion, and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people,...
. Some of the names also appear to demonstrate punning - Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal rhyme, and appear to be derived from the same root - JBL (YVL in modern Hebrew):
to bring forth, (also)
to carry. A similar description existed amongst
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
ns.
The names are instead interpreted in the
MidrashMidrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
as an attack on
polygamyThe term polygamy is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, sociology, as well as in popular speech. Polygamy can be defined as any "form of marriage in which a person [has] more than one spouse."In social anthropology, polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one...
.
Adah is there interpreted as
the deposed one, implying that Lamech spurned her in favour of Zillah, whose own name is understood to mean
she shaded herself [from Zillah at Lamech's side]. The Midrash consequently regards Adah as having been treated as a slave, tyrannised by her husband, who was at the beck and call of his mistress, Zillah. It further goes on to claim that part of the immorality, which had led God to flood the earth, was the polygamy practised by Lamech and his generation.
The rabbinical tradition is just as condemning of Naamah. While a minority, such as Abba ben Kahana, see Naamah as having become Noah's wife, and being so named because her conduct was
pleasing to God, the majority of classical rabbinical sources consider her name to be due to her singing
pleasant songs in worship of idols.
Song of the Sword
The last part of the tale of Lamech , takes the form of a brief poem, which refers back to the
curse of CainIn Christianity and Judaism, the curse of Cain and the mark of Cain refer to the Biblical passages in the Book of Genesis chapter 4, where God declared that Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, was cursed, and placed a mark upon him to warn others that killing Cain would provoke the vengeance...
. In the poem, Lamech's stance resembles that of a supreme warrior, able to avenge himself absolutely. However, no explanation of who Lamech supposedly killed is ever given in the
TanakhThe Tanakh is a name for the Bible used in Rabbinic Judaism, also known as the Masoretic Text. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
. Some scholars have proposed that it is connected to the invention, contextually by Tubal-Cain, of the
swordA sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used in many civilizations throughout the world, primarily as a cutting or thrusting weapon and occasionally for clubbing...
, for which reason the poem is often referred to as the
Song of the Sword. The poem may originate from the mysterious
Book of the Wars of the LordThe Book of the Wars of the Lord is one of several non-canonical books referenced in the Bible which has now been completely lost. It is mentioned in , which reads: "From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the desert and bounding the Amorite territory. For...
, though the greater context for it is likely to remain obscure.
However, this paucity of context did not stop a rabbinical tradition growing up around it. The
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
and
MidrashMidrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
present an extensive legend, told, for example, by Rashi, in which Lamech first loses his sight from age, and had to be led by Tubal-Cain, the seventh generation from Cain. Tubal-Cain saw in the distance something that he first took for an animal, but it was actually Cain (still alive, due to the extensive life span of the antediluvians) whom Lamech had accidentally killed with an arrow. When they discovered who it was, Lamech, in sorrow, clapped his hands together, which (for an unclear reason) kills Tubal-Cain. In consequence, Lamech's wives desert him. A similar legend is preserved in the pseudepigraphic
Second Book of Adam and EveThe Books of Adam is a collective name of several apocryphal books relating to Adam and Eve.*The Book of Adam or "Contradiction of Adam and Eve" is a romance made up of Oriental fables...
, Chapter XIII; in this version Tubal-Cain is not named, but is instead referred to as "the young shepherd." After Lamech claps his hands he strikes the young shepherd on the head. To ensure his death, he then smashed his head with a rock.
An alternate form of this negative attitude towards Lamech (such as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) claims that even though Lamech did not kill anyone, his wives refused to associate with him and denied him sex, on the grounds that Cain's line was to be annihilated after seven generations. The poem is then given by Lamech to allay their fears. Other classical sources, such as
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
, see the word
seventy-seven as the number of sons which Lamech eventually had.
Extending on this classical view of Lamech is the
Book of MosesThe Book of Moses is a text published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is currently included as part of the Pearl of Great Price as one of the four major collections of the Mormon scriptural canon.-Origin:...
, regarded in
MormonismMormonism comprises the religious, institutional, and cultural elements of the early Latter Day Saint movement and its modern denominations deriving from the leadership of Brigham Young...
as
scriptureScripture is that corpus of literature deemed authoritative for establishing doctrine within any of a number of specific religious traditions, especially the Abrahamic religions.Such bodies of writings are also sometimes known as the canon of scripture...
. According to this Latter-day Saint text, Lamech entered into a secret pact with
SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
, as had Cain before him, becoming a second
Master MahanIn the religious texts of the Latter Day Saint movement, Master Mahan is a title assumed first by Cain and later by his descendant Lamech. The title indicates that Cain and Lamech were each the "master" of a "great secret" whereby they covenanted with Satan to kill for personal gain...
. When Irad (an ancestor of Lamech) learned his secret and began to publicise it, Lamech murdered him. News of the murder was spread by Lamech's two wives, leading to his being cast out of society.