Bible Discussion Thread

Here in Gen. 10, we see a quick rundown of the lineages of Ham and Japheth, and last but not least, Shem; but it is rather striking that for Ham and Japheth, no reckoning of their ages and lifespans appears to exist. Certainly not here... while on the other hand, Shem's male offspring are listed generally as having 400-500 year lifespans, apparently in direct contradiction to the remark of God in Gen. 6:3, that He will no longer strive with man, and will reduce his lifespan to 120 years.

It's not explicitly discussed after this (as far as I know), and Ham's and Japheth's lineages fade out of view, and obviously it's because Shem's lineage leads to the Messiah. And eventually we see this lineage lead to Abraham, whose lifespan was "only" 175 years, but it's probably safe to "read between the lines" here and assume Shem's offspring retained really long lifespans because they were in the lineage of the Messiah, while Shem's brothers' lineages shrank to 120 years after God's pronouncement in Gen. 6:3 and the imminent Flood.

Hi Eric. The way I understand Genesis 6:3, is that the LORD is giving mankind 120 years of life till He wipes them out. So, "yet his days" don't refer to the 'new' lifespan of humans, but to the remaining days that man has on Earth. All would be wiped out, but Noah & his family "found grace in the eyes of the LORD". And within that time frame of 120 years, Noah was given the plans for building the Ark, collecting the wood & beams, building it, collecting the animals & food to sustain them all, until God shut the door & brought the rain.

It didn't take Noah that long to build the Ark (some have calculated the figure should be around 70 years), but from God's announcement of 120 years left for mankind's life on Earth, there would have been a long period (long, for us today) between the announcement & the start of the building work & the coming of the rain.