And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
Arphaxad belonged to the generations after Noah, fathering Salah when he was thirty-five years old. His place stands within the post-Flood genealogy belonging to the period in which human lifespans were decreasing, unlike the nearly thousand-year lives of the patriarchs before the Flood. That genealogy still records long lives, with the nine generations recorded after the Flood averaging 332 years. This marks a greatly declined lifespan compared with the nine generations before the Flood, which averaged 912 years.
The verse forms one link in the genealogy from Shem to Abraham that preserved direct personal contact between Adam and Jacob. Its chronology places Shem living until 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac. In this way what God taught Adam could pass directly from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel.
Arphaxad belonged to the generations after Noah, fathering Salah when he was thirty-five years old. His place stands within the post-Flood genealogy belonging to the period in which human lifespans were decreasing, unlike the nearly thousand-year lives of the patriarchs before the Flood. That genealogy still records long lives, with the nine generations recorded after the Flood averaging 332 years. This marks a greatly declined lifespan compared with the nine generations before the Flood, which averaged 912 years.
The verse forms one link in the genealogy from Shem to Abraham that preserved direct personal contact between Adam and Jacob. Its chronology places Shem living until 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac. In this way what God taught Adam could pass directly from Adam to Methuselah to Shem to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel.