Mahalaleel

Mahalaleel (meaning praise of God) is the name of two men in the Old Testament. (1.) The son of Cainan in the antediluvian Sethite line, great-great-grandson of Adam through Seth (Genesis 5:12–17). He lived 895 years and was the father of Jared, who became the father of Enoch. He appears in Luke's genealogy of Jesus as Maleleel (Luke 3:37), placed between Cainan and Jared in the long Adamic lineage. (2.) A descendant of Judah through Perez who lived in Jerusalem in the post-exilic period (Nehemiah 11:4), in the settlement of Judahites in the holy city after the return from Babylon.

The antediluvian Mahalaleel's name stands as one of the few Sethite names carrying a clear theophoric (God-referencing) element — a contrast sometimes drawn with the Cainite genealogy in Genesis 4, which lacks such names. In the Sethite line, the pattern of naming children with reference to God culminates in Enoch, who "walked with God," and Noah, through whom the covenant line was preserved through the flood.