HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER…

One of the commandments that God gave to Moses says, “Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.”(Ex:20:12) Most people only know the first part of this commandment and assume that it demands that we respect our parents. But this commandment tells us much more: in order to honor our parents, it is essential to know who they are. That is of course important to avoid incest.

When we take the ages of the first 20 patriarchs (10+10 or 7+13), we see that Enoch, the seventh patriarch on this list, was the second to die, while Peleg, the fifteenth patriarch, was the tenth to die. What do Enoch and Peleg have in common? Among other things, they both believed that their father was someone much older. Whereas Enoch was raised by Cain*, Peleg was raised by Shem**

*In case Yared had Enoch from Cain’s wife, Enoch was raised by Cain.

**Gn10:21 says that Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber. This means that Eber had children with one of Shem’s wife (not necessarily his mother) and that Peleg was raised by Shem.