And Noah is a son of five hundred years, and Noah begetteth Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 5:32, YLT)
Noah sure did wait a long time to have children. Comparatively speaking, his ancestors became fathers at the average spring chicken age of 120 (based on the average age of the patriarchs in Genesis Chapter 5). The choice in wording is also interesting, as this verse specifically uses the word ben, which typically means “son”. The Hebrew ben isn’t used to describe how any of Noah’s patriarchs became fathers; it’s only attached to Noah to poetically describe the years of an older man’s life.
Is there anything to make of this? Could it be that there is something more beyond the poetry that gives us a clue as to why Noah remained childless for so long?
I believe the Scriptures DO offer us answers.
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. (Genesis 6:1-2, emphasis mine)
Here’s that word “ben” again (this time in plural form, b’nai). I’ll venture to say that the Word of God might be trying to teach us something about being a son, a son of the Most High God that is. Let’s forget all the gross speculation about these “sons of God” being aliens or fallen angels, and instead consider that the author is trying to show how Noah kept his status as a son… while the rest of mankind lost theirs. Perhaps the Word is showing that men substituted fellowship with the Holy One for the company of women. I believe my interpretation fits the context, especially after reading the very next revelation:
Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive among man forever, in whom only is flesh; and his days will be one hundred twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3, my translation).
In Noah’s 480th year (the Flood came when Noah was 600; cf. Gen. 7:11), God lined out how long mankind would remain on the Earth. While putting this mark on mankind, He certainly isn’t calling them “sons of God” anymore. He’s now seeing them as something much worse – specifically he calls them “flesh”. This is how God will hereafter describe humanity up to the flood, especially when He shows Noah His vision, i.e. “the end of all flesh has come before me…” (vs. 13).
This wasn’t intended of course. It’s perfectly clear that we were made to fellowship with His Spirit, even if He would strive for us for a time. However, In God’s view, men rejected following God’s spirit and instead chased flesh. Men lost sight of being “sons of God” to the point of just becoming your average bag of flesh:
“Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6)
This is not an account of fallen angels, this is an account of fallen men! This was a time when Yahweh looked at the earth and no longer found any “sons”… except for one.
Interestingly enough, whereas the above Scripture says “Yahweh was sorry” that verb is actually yinachem – the same root bearing Noah’s real name “Noach”, who “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.” (vs. 9)
I believe the reason Noah abstained from bearing children was because he looked at the world in the same way Yahweh saw it – with much grief. I believe Noah walked with God so closely that he was also nachem (sorry) that God made man, and didn’t see any reason to bring a child into the world. In fact, I don’t think Noah even considered fatherhood until God’s Spirit marked out a remaining 120 years, and gave Noah a vision about entering the ark with sons of his own (cf. Gen. 6:18). When Noah saw these things, I believe Noah adjusted his life to the will of the Spirit – and is this not what every righteous man aspires to be? To be such a man who adjusts his life to the will of the One True God?
In short, Noah was being a son amidst a great deal of flesh.
If any man is not a son of God, he is just a walking bag of bones. Noah’s life exemplifies how we all must have our walk with the Almighty – even if the whole world falls away. ◊
Standing In The Eleventh Hour 
Strange, I was just reading Gen this morning, and looking at a time-chart, and wondering why in the world did Noah wait so long to have children. My first reaction was: “Why would I want to bring up children in this wicked world?” Then I typed in Google: “why did Noah wait so long to have children,” and this page popped up, with the same conclusion. I also had other weird ideas, like God knew he only wanted 8 on board the ark, and had Noah began to have children hundreds of years before, he would have had hundreds of descendants. Or maybe Noah’s descendants would have degenerated quickly (which, in fact, they did later).
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I agree Chip, I think the feel of the text points to Noah feeling despondent that the world was so wicked. We’ll likely never know, though I suppose everything else you mentioned could be a possibility.
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I think this possibility makes a lot of sense. I know someone who once said he sees this generation as so bad that he doesn’t wish to bring kids into it. There is so much evil going on that could sweep our children away from God. We can only pray that they remain in God and that His truth prevails against all the lies the world is trying to feed them.
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I disagree to the idea that he waited so long to have children because of the sinfulness in the world. Not only did he wait so long, so did his father and and his father before him. It may have been tradition or something that if the man didn’t have any land, status that they were considered manly enough to have children idk but the above idea seems unlikely to me. Or maybe it’s that they did have children before and those children weren’t mentioned because it’s from that age that the individual gave their heart fully to God and now those children are shown as the chosen ones because they grew up the way God intended? In chapter 5 when Moses mentions adams lineage cain and abel are not mentioned but we know they were before seth…I find this interesting 🧐 just some food for thought
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Hi Mimi, it is possible that what you suggest is true. There may however be a few verses that Genesis 6:10 says he begot three sons and 7:1 calls this “his whole house.” Still, I respect what you said – it’s possible that Noah had children that strayed – but that would mean that Noah, as “the most righteous of his generation (6:9) was not able to save him. I would still interpret the way I have it – but your comments will be with me!
As for Chapter 5 – Cain’s, or Qayin’s, lineage is listed in Chapter 4, right before Sheth’s. It is mentioned and spelled out in great detail, in fact. The divisions of chapters and verses are manmade, but it’s surely mentioned.
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