What Does Genesis 5:20 Mean in the King James?
And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Nine hundred and sixty-two years enlarge the count of Jared’s life, but the line still ends with the plain words, “and he died.”
THE MEANING
The verse holds a remarkably long life and its ending in the same breathless record. A number can measure days, but it cannot make a life limitless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that living long enough can place a person beyond mortality.
THE ROOT
וַיָּמָת
wayyāmoṯ
GROWS FROM
מות
to die
“died” in this verse is wayyāmoṯ. The Hebrew wording gives no separate explanation for Jared’s death; it states the ending directly. The long count does not alter the meaning of the final verb.
ALSO GROWS
māweṯ: death
מָוֶת
The same root names both the act of dying and death itself.
mēṯ: dead
מֵת
This form describes the state reached by the action named in the verse.
יֶרֶד
Yered
GROWS FROM
ירד
to descend, go down
Jared’s name is commonly connected with the root ירד, “to descend.” The verse does not say that his name causes or predicts his death, but the name’s nature sits beside the genealogy’s recurring descent from one generation to the next.
ALSO GROWS
yāraḏ: to descend or go down
יָרַד
This is the verb commonly connected with Jared’s name.
yeridah: descent
יְרִידָה
This noun makes the name’s association with downward movement visible.
THE PATTERN
A life may be measured in years, yet its length does not remove the boundary of death.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:THE THREAD
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;The Hebrew verb for “to die” here is מוּת (mūṯ), from the same root מות as “and he died” in Genesis. Ecclesiastes sets dying alongside birth as part of life’s stated boundaries, while Genesis lets that boundary close Jared’s long count.
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