Significance of Methuselah's death year This is something I noted once when reading Genesis, and am still wondering if there's any meaning to it.

Genesis tells us that Noah was 599-600 years old1 when the flood came.


  Genesis 7:11 (ESV)
  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.   


We can also find the age difference of Methuselah and Noah in Genesis 5, and it's 187 + 182 = 369 years2:


  Genesis 5:25-29 (ESV)
   25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
   28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands."   


So, if Noah was 600 when the flood happened, Methuselah was 600 + 369 = 969. That is, he died around the time of flood.

Did Methuselah die in the flood? Does the Bible refer to this anywhere else? Is this in any way significant?



1 I don't know Hebrew, so I'm not gonna guess. The tenth year of my life was technically when I was 9 years old. But even in English the phrase might also mean being 10 years old.

2 More precisely, the age difference is in the range of [369 years; 370 years + 364 days]
It is relevant that Methuselah died just before the flood. Just have a look at the names of the first 10 generations leading up to Noah:


Adam - Man (CJBPG)
Seth - Appointed
Enosh - Mortal, weak (Smith's, Hitchcock's, Nave's)
Kenan - Sorrow
Mahalelel - The Praise of Lord (Smith's, Fausset's, Easton's, Nave's)
Jared - Descend  (Smith's, Fausset's, Easton's, Nave's, Hitchcock's, ISBE)
Enoch - Dedicated
Methuselah - His death shall bring (Fausset's)
Lamech - Lamentator, the poor, brought low (Hitchcock)
Noah - Comfort


Putting this together:

Man is appointed to be mortal and sorrowful. But the Praise of the Lord will descend, dedicated that His death shall bring the desparing, low, and poor comfort.

I imaging that every time Methuselah had a cold, everybody worried.

But what a prophecy into God's plan for humanity! 

Now, based on this it is my believe that Methuselah died before the flood. There is no prove for that, though.

Jewish counting works different from ours: When Jesus was dead for 3 days, that means that he died on one, was dead the next, and rose the third. (which would make it possible for him to be dead for only 27 hours: He died at 3pm, and the third day started at around 6pm the next evening.)

Therefore Methuselah could have died on his 968th birthday and still have lived 969 years.