And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
And he begat sons and daughters. Neither their names nor their occupations, nor anything respecting them, being mentioned, it is probable that there was nothing worthy of note in the lives of any of them. But the principal reason why they are entirely omitted is, that the sacred historian did not contemplate a general history or a biographical memoir of the primitive family, but only a brief notice of one particular branch of it from which the Messiah was to derive his lineage. Omitting, in all probability, many sons in the successive families even of the Sethite line, he has given a genealogical list, which comprises in each only the name of that person who formed the connecting link in the chain of direct descent. The birth of Seth is recorded previous to the mention of the other sons and daughters of Adam; but there is every reason to believe that the birth of many of them was prior to his, and that Seth, who was born in his father's hundred and thirtieth year, was among the youngest of the family. This conjecture, which seems well founded, throws light on a circumstance otherwise difficult to be accounted for-namely, that the fathers in this enumeration were all considerably advanced in life at the birth of the son whose name is recorded; because they might already have been the heads of a numerous family when he was born, if, as in the case of Seth, and others, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, the destined "heir of the promise" was always a younger son.