וַֽיְחִ֥י קֵינָ֖ן שִׁבְעִ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת מַֽהֲלַלְאֵֽל
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Genesis 5:12
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Genesis 5:12 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Kenan lived seventy years, then he fathered Mahalalel.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalalel:
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalalel:
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Likewise Kenan liued seuentie yeeres, and begate Mahalaleel.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Malaleel.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And Cainan liveth seventy years, and begetteth Mahalaleel.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And Cainan lives seventy years [[or one hundred and seventy years]], and begets Mahalaleel.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
When Kenan had lived seventy years, he became the father of Mahalalel.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Kenan lived seventy years, then he fathered Mahalalel.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Kenan lived seventy years, then became the father of Mahalalel.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
When Kenan was 70, he had Mehalalel.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And Kenan was seventy years old when he became the father of Mahalalel:
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And Kenan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
קֵינָ֖ן
Qêynân
H7018
“Kenan”
Noun, Proper
- Appears 6× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 5:9
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Proper
Full BDB Definition
Kenan = "possession"
- son of Enosh and father of Mahalaleel
- also 'Cainan'
- וַֽיְחִ֥י châyâh H2421 “and · to live” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- קֵינָ֖ן Qêynân H7018 “Kenan” Noun, Proper
- שִׁבְעִ֣ים shibʻîym H7657 “seventy” Adjective, Cardinal number, Both, Plural, Absolute
- שָׁנָ֑ה shâneh H8141 “year” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- וַיּ֖וֹלֶד yâlad H3205 “and · to bear” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- מַֽהֲלַלְאֵֽל Mahălalʼêl H4111 “Mahalaleel” Noun, Proper
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 7
- words
- 7
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is קֵינָ֖ן Kenan H7018 — appearing just 6 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
- מַֽהֲלַלְאֵֽל Mahalaleel H4111
Shared distinctive vocabulary
קֵינָ֖ן Kenan H7018 occurs in 6 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 3 nouns
- 1 adjective
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַֽיְחִ֥י Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיּ֖וֹלֶד Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
1Topical passages linked to Genesis 5:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Luke 3:37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί ζάω καιναν ἑκατόν ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτος καί γεννάω ὁ μαλελεηλ
And Cainan lived one hundred and seventy years, and he begot Maleleel.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַחֲיָא קֵינָן שַׁבְעִין שְׁנִין וְאוֹלִיד יָת מַהֲלַלְאֵל
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַחֲיָא קֵינָן שׁוּבְעִין שְׁנִין וְאוֹלִיד יַת מַהֲלַלְאֵל
And Kenan lived seventy years and begat Mahalalel.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Qêynân (“Kenan”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “Kenan” (Qêynân) shape what this verse is saying?
- The word “Mahalaleel” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
- Genesis 5:9 shares the word «Kenan» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
- The verb «וַֽיְחִ֥י» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- 1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
- This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
- 7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Genesis 5:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.