How old was Noah when he died?
The verse closes the account of the man who came through the flood: 950 years of life, 350 of them in a world washed clean, and then the same three words written over his ancestors. It raises two questions worth sitting with — why such long lives, and why God ends even the best of these histories with a death.
The Number Itself
Noah's span puts him near the top of the list of the long-lived men before the flood, and it gave him time to watch a whole world repopulate.
L. M. GrantNoah continued to live 300 years after the flood, attaining an age of 950 years, only 19 short of Methuselah. He lived long enough to see a large population of his own descendants.
Note that commentators state the years after the flood differently — the text itself says 350, and Grant's figure of 300 appears to be a slip.
"And He Died"
Noah's death is not an isolated fact. It is the last link in a chain that runs through the whole line from Adam, and each link says the same thing.
C. H. MackintoshWe may run the eye over the contents of Chapter 5 and find there the plain record of man's weakness, and his subjection to the rule of death. He might live for hundreds of years, and "father sons and daughters;" but at last it must be recorded that "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed for man to die once." Man cannot get past this. He cannot, by steam, or electricity, or anything else within reach of his genius, take away death's terrible sting.
That repeated phrase is also missing where you might expect it. Later genealogies in Genesis are silent about death, and one writer sees a purpose in the difference.
William KellyThe sorrowful chime is heard throughout the earlier one, "and he died." Not once does this sound in the later one, though in fact all those spoken of in chapter 11 did die... In the second half of chapter 11 we read of the line of blessing, and we are told of each generation down to Abram, the time when the promise was made, and the years they lived; but nothing is said of death. Let anyone call either of these accidental; the believer can hardly avoid seeing a distinct purpose in each.
Why Lives Were So Long
Nobody had a Bible yet. One writer suggests the length of these lives served the purpose that written Scripture would later serve, and that the flood marked the start of a steady decline.
J. N. DarbyGod's prolonging man's life at that time acted instead of writing the word; we see God's wisdom in it. At the flood we get life shortened by half; and by half again, when the earth was divided and portioned out to the people. It would not do, in the way the world is now, for men to live 900 years.
What Filled Those Last 350 Years
The most sobering detail is not how long Noah lived after the flood, but how little of it God chose to record.
F. B. HoleWe may say then, that after the flood mankind was given a fresh start under Noah. But, as under Adam, so again, failure and sin quickly followed. We have had plenty of testimony to the fact that Noah was a godly man who found grace in the sight of the Lord, and he lived for no less than 350 years after the flood, as we are told at the end of our chapter. Yet the one and only thing on record about him in all those years is that he planted a vineyard, made wine, was trapped into self-indulgence, and became unconscious in drunkenness. The man now most responsible to control others lost control of himself.
The Man Who Outlives His Own Death
Noah's story does not stop at the grave. Hebrews says he became heir of a righteousness that could not yet be revealed, and an heir eventually receives what he was promised.
F. B. HoleVerse 4 has told us that "By faith Abel... was commended as righteous"; that is to say, he was then and there counted righteous by God... Noah too was righteous; we are told so in Genesis 7:1... There could be no revelation of "the righteousness that comes by faith" until Christ had died and risen again... So this righteousness is here viewed as something future, and Noah by his faith became heir to it; and in the rich inheritance it brings for all who share in it, Noah will be found standing in the age to come.
Summary
- 950. Noah lived 950 years, 350 of them after the flood — within 19 years of Methuselah, the longest life recorded.
- Long. Long life had a purpose before Scripture was written; after the flood, life was shortened by half, and by half again.
- Wasted. Out of those 350 post-flood years, the only thing recorded is Noah's drunkenness — the man responsible to govern others lost control of himself.
- Died. The same three words close every life from Adam to Noah: death reigned, and no human progress removes its sting.
- Heir. Noah died as an heir, not a loser — the righteousness he could not yet receive is his in the age to come, and the later line of blessing in Genesis 11 records no deaths at all.