What Does Genesis 5:7 Mean in the King James?
And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
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
The verse places a name meaning “appointed” beside one meaning “mortal human,” making a long life a passage carried through human generations.
THE MEANING
Your life reaches you through generations, and what continues remains mortal and human. Seth’s name means “appointed,” while Enos’s means “mortal human,” so the verse holds continuity and finitude in one line.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹלֶד
wayyoled
GROWS FROM
ילד
yalad
to bear, beget, bring forth
English makes “begat” sound like one isolated act; יָלַד (yalad, bring forth) also yields תּוֹלְדוֹת (toledot, generations or lineage), so the act is already the shape of an unfolding family history. Here Seth brings forth Enos, then sons and daughters: one birth opens into a branching line.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: child
יֶלֶד
The child is what the act of bringing forth produces; the verse names Enos and then a wider family.
toledot: generations, lineage
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This word grows from the same root and shows how an act of begetting becomes the continuing story of a family.
אֱנוֹשׁ
Enosh
GROWS FROM
אנש
anash
to be frail, weak, or mortal
Enos is not a generic label for humanity: אֱנוֹשׁ (Enosh, mortal human) carries the frailty of אנש (anash, be weak or frail). The name keeps the generational line concrete: life continues among mortal people, not outside mortality.
ALSO GROWS
Enosh: mortal human
אֱנוֹשׁ
The name of Seth’s son carries the root’s human frailty into the very next link of the family line.
anush: incurably ill, gravely sick
אָנֻשׁ
This related form reveals the root’s vulnerable edge, deepening the name’s sense of human mortality.
THE PATTERN
Life is carried forward as one generation gives living inheritance to the next.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.THE THREAD
And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.Genesis 4:25 places Seth’s name, שֵׁת (Sheth, appointed), beside שָׁת (shath, appointed), from שִׁית (shith, set or place), making the name’s nature explicit. That link opens Genesis 5:7: Seth’s line is an appointed life continuing through Enos, אֱנוֹשׁ (Enosh, mortal human).
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