Genesis 5:29

saying, This same shall comfort us, &c. It is generally supposed that this verse, containing a poetical couplet which is intended to explain the name of Noah, has been inserted from the same source of tradition (J) as Genesis 4:25-26. Certainly, (a) the saying interrupts the bare list of names and years; (b) it contains a reference to the curse pronounced upon the soil, Genesis 3:17; (c) it recurs to the use of the sacred name "Jehovah" ("Jahveh"), whereas "God" ("Elohim") has been used in Genesis 5:1; Genesis 5:22; Genesis 5:24.

comfort Heb. naḥem, "to comfort," "relieve." The name "Noah," however, is not derived from naḥem, but there is a play on the general similarity of sound. The LXX renders "gives us rest."

for our work The word "for" is in the Heb. "from," and the meaning is that Noah will comfort his fellow-creatures and give them relief and refreshment "from" their toil.

because of the ground Better, as R.V. marg., "which cometh from the ground." This clause is in prose, following two metrical clauses.

In what way did the tradition connect the name of Noah with "comfort" as regards work upon the ground? According to the Hebrew figures in this chapter, Lamech, Noah's father, must have died either before or in the Flood. It is conceivable that the saying recorded in this verse is taken from a group of Israelite traditions which contained no account of the Flood, and only associated the name of Noah with the work of an husbandman and with the first planting of a vineyard (Genesis 9:20).