Lamech

Meaning: the strikerdown; the wild man

This was the name of two men who lived before the biblical Flood.

1. The fifth in descent from Cain. He was the first to violate the primeval ordinance of marriage (Gen. 4:18-24). His address to his two wives, Adah and Zillah (4:23,24), is the only extant example of antediluvian poetry. It has been called "Lamech's sword-song." He was "rude and ruffianly," fearing neither God nor man. With him the curtain falls on the race of Cain. We know nothing of his descendants.

2. The seventh in descent from Seth, being the only mentioned son of Methuselah. Noah was the oldest of his several sons (Gen. 5:25-31; Luke 3:36).