And Noah begat his three sons, during the first hundred years he worked at the ark.
2During these hundred years he ate no food, whence blood flows; the shoes on his feet were neither changed, nor worn, nor grown old.
3During these hundred years also, he did not change his garments from off him, neither did they wear out, in the least;
4he did not change the staff in his hand, nor did the cloth about his head grow old; and the hair of his head neither increased nor grew less.
5As to those three sons of Noah, the first of them is Shem;
6the next is Ham; and the third is Japhet.
7They married wives from among the daughters of Methuselah; as the wise interpreters have told us; as it is written in the first sacred book of the Greeks.
8The life also of Lamech, Noah's father, was 553 years; and when he drew nigh unto death, he called unto him his father Methuselah and his son Noah,
9and he wept before his father Methuselah and said unto him, "Dismiss me, O my father, and bless me."
10Then Methuselah blessed his son Lamech, and said, "Not one of all our fathers died before his father, yet the father died before his son, in order that there should be his son to bury him in the earth.
11Now, however, O my son, thou diest before me, and I shall drink the cup of sorrow on thy account, ere I go out of the flesh."
12Henceforth, O my son, behold the world is changed, and the order of deaths of men is changed:
13for from today the son shall die before his father; and the father shall not rejoice in his son, nor be satisfied with him.
14So also shall the son not be satisfied with his father, nor rejoice in him."
15Then Lamech died, and they embalmed him, and laid him in the Cave of Treasures.
16His death took place seven years before the Flood came; and his father Methuselah and his son Noah remained alone on the Holy Mountain.
17Yet Noah went down every day to work at the ark, and came up at eventide.
18And he instructed his sons and their wives not to come down after him, and not to hold intercourse with the children of Cain.
19For Noah was anxious about his sons, and said in his mind, "They are young and might be overcome by passion."
20So he went down by night; and gave old Methuselah directions about them.