In the Genesis account, Noah’s father before the Ark flood was named Lamech.
Genesis 5 traces Noah’s ancestry through the line of Seth and identifies Lamech as Noah’s father. Lamech is said to have named his son Noah, expressing hope that the child would bring relief from the difficult labor associated with the cursed ground. Noah later becomes the central human figure in the flood narrative.
Lamech is also the name of another, earlier figure in Genesis 4, a descendant of Cain. These two men are distinct people in separate genealogical lines, which can cause confusion when readers compare the chapters. The Lamech who fathered Noah belongs to the genealogy of Seth.
Genesis also states that Lamech lived 777 years. Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the flood narrative later places Noah’s age at 600 when the flood began. These figures belong to the text’s genealogical chronology.