“Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more”
Genesis 5:24
IdiomSettledNarrator
Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away. (Genesis 5:24 BSB)
* Hebrew: laqach, 'took'; the same verb used when Elijah is taken up (2 Kings 2). Enoch is drawn straight into God, with no death recorded.
What it sounds like today
An obituary noting a godly man who passed away.
The cultural key
Chapter 5 is a drumbeat of death: name after name lives, has sons, and 'then he died.' Enoch breaks the pattern. Twice he is said to 'walk with God' (halak), the idiom for the closest covenant fellowship (used again of Noah), and then the refrain 'and he died' is replaced by 'he was no more, because God took him.' The verb 'took' (laqach) reappears at Elijah's ascension, which is why Enoch became the great exception, the man who did not die.
Recovered meaning
In a chapter where everyone dies, one man simply walks off the page into God. Enoch's disappearance is the first hint in Scripture that fellowship with God might not end at the grave.
Parallels: 2 Kings 2:11; Hebrews 11:5