@Jay Ross would like to share with you from the Easton dictionary
Generation
Gen_2:4, “These are the generations,” means the “history.” Gen_5:1, “The book of the generations,” means a family register, or history of Adam. Gen_37:2, “The generations of Jacob” = the history of Jacob and his descendants. Gen_7:1, “In this generation” = in this age. Psa_49:19, “The generation of his fathers” = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Psa_73:15, “The generation of thy children” = the contemporary race. Isa_53:8, “Who shall declare his generation?” = His manner of life who shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so numerous that no one shall be able to declare it.
In Mat_1:17, the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Mat_3:7, “Generation of vipers” = brood of vipers. Mat_24:34, “This generation” = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1Pe_2:9, “A chosen generation” = a chosen people.
The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Gen_15:16, “In the fourth generation” = in four hundred years (compare Gen_15:13 and Exo_12:40). In Deu_1:35 and Deu_2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.
It is understood that many people will have different ideas, check this one out from the Smith Dic.
Generation
Generation. In the long-lived patriarchal age, a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, Gen_15:16, compare Gen_15:13 and Ecc_12:40, but subsequently, the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, namely, From thirty to forty years Job_42:16.
(Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, Gen_6:9; Isa_53:8, posterity, especially in legal formulae, Lev_3:17, etc.; fathers, or ancestors. Psa_49:19.
Another from hastings
Generation
GENERATION.—‘Generation’ is used in AV to tr. 1. Heb. dôr, which is used (a) generally for a period, especially in the phrases dôr wâdhôr, etc., of limitless duration; past, Isa_51:8; future, Psa_10:6; past and future, Psa_102:24; (b) of all men living at any given time (Gen_6:9); (c) of a class of men with some special characteristic, Pro_30:11-14 of four generations of bad men; (d) in Isa_38:12 and Psa_49:19 dôr is sometimes taken as ‘dwelling-place.’ 2. Heb. tôlĕdhôth (from yâladh, ‘beget’ or ‘bear children’), which is used in the sense of (a) genealogies Gen_5:1, figuratively of the account of creation, Gen_2:4; also (b) divisions of a tribe, as based on genealogy; tôlĕdhôth occurs only in the Priestly Code, in Rth_4:18, and in 1Ch_3:1-24. Gr. genea in same sense as 1 (a), Col_1:26; as 1 (b), Mat_24:34. 4. =Gen_2:1-25 (a), Mat_1:1, an imitation of LXX use of genesis for tôlĕdhôth. 5. Gennçma, ‘offspring’ = 1 (c): so Mat_3:7|| (‘generation, i.e. offspring, of vipers’). 6. genos, ‘race’ = 1 (c): so 1Pe_2:9 (AV ‘chosen generation,’ RV ‘elect race’).
One more from Cyclopedia
Generation
(תּוֹלְדֶה, γένεσις, the act; γέννημα, the result: דּוֹר, γενεα, a period). Considerable obscurity attends the use of this word in the English version, which arises from the translators having merged the various meanings of the same original word, and even of several different words, in one common term, "generation." The remark, too, is just, that in the literal translations of the Scriptures, the word "generation" generally occurs wherever the Latin has generatio, and the Greek γενεά or γένεσις (Rees’s Encyclopedia, article Generation). The following instances seem to require the original words to be understood in some one of their derivative senses: Gen_2:4," These are the generations" (תּוֹלְדוֹת; Sept. ἡ βίβλος γενέσεως; Vulg: generationes), rather "origin," "history," etc. The same Greek words, Mat_1:1, are rendered "a genealogy," etc., by recent translators: Campbell has "lineage." Gen_5:1, "The book of the generations" (סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדרֹ; Sept. as before; Vulg. liber generationis) is properly a family register, a history of Adam. The same words, Gen_37:2, mean a history of Jacob and his descendants; so also Gen_6:9; Gen_10:1, and elsewhere. Gen_7:1, "In this generation" (בִּרּור הַזֶּה; Sept. ἐν τῇ γενεᾶ’/ τάυτῃ, Vulg. in generatione hac) is evidently "in this age." Gen_15:6, "In the fourth generation" (רּוֹר; Sept. γενεά, Vulg. generatio) is an instance of the word in the sense of a certain assigned period. Psa_49:19, "The generation of his fathers" (עִראּרּוֹר אֲבוֹתָיו, Sept. γενιᾶς πατέρων αύτοῦ) Gesenius renders "the dwelling of his fathers," i.e. the grave, and adduces Isa_38:12.: Psa_73:15, "The generation of thy children" (רּוֹר בָּנֶיךָ, Sept. γενεὰ τῶν υἱῶν σοῦ) is "class," "order," "description;" as in Pro_30:11-14. Isa_53:8, "Who shall declare his generation?" (רּוֹרוֹ; Sept. τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται, Vulug. generatio)
Lowth renders "manner of life," in translation and note, but adduces no precedent. Some consider it equivalent to זֶרִע, Isa_53:10 : γενεά (Sept.) answers to זֶרִע, Est_9:28. Josephus uses πολλήν γενεάν, Ant. 1:10, 3 (Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, volume 1, Washington, 1836-9; Pauli, Analect. Hebraic. page 162, Oxford, 1839). Michaelis renders it, "Where was the providence that cared for his life?" Gesenius and Rosenmuller, "Who of his contemporaries reflected?" Seiler, "Who can describe his length of life?" In the New Testament (Mat_1:17), γενεαί is a series of persons, a succession from the same stock; so used by Josephus (Ant. 1:7, 2); Philo (Vit. Mos. 1:603); Mat_3:7, γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, is well rendered by Doddridge and others "brood of vipers." Mat_24:34, ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη means the generation or persons then living contemporary with Christ (see Macknight’s Harmony for an illustration of this sense). Luk_16:8, εἰς τὴν γενεὰν τἡν ἑαυτῶν, "in their generation," etc., wiser in regard to their dealings with the men of their generation; Rosenmuller gives, inter se. 1Pe_2:8, γένος ἐκλεκτόν, is a "chosen people," quoted from Sept. Vers. of Isa_43:20. The ancient Greeks, and, if we may credit Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians also, assigned a certain period to a generation. The Greeks reckoned three generations for every hundred years, i.e., 331 years to each; Herod. 2:142, γενεαὶ τρεῖς ἀνδρῶν ἑκατὸν ἔτεά ἐστι, "Three generations of men make one hundred years." This is nearly the present computation. To the same effect Clem. Alexandrinus speaks (Strom. 1:2); so also Phavorinus, who, citing the age of Nestor from Homer (Il. 1:250), τῷ δ ἤδη δύο μὲν γενεαί, "two generations," says it means that ὑπερἑβη τὰ ἑξήκοντα ἔτη, "he was above sixty years old." The Greeks, however, assigned different periods to a γενεά at different times (Perizonius, Orig. Egypt. page 175 sq.; Jensius, Fercul. Literar. page 6). The ancient Hebrews also reckoned by the generation, and assigned different spaces of time to it at different periods of their history. In the time of Abraham it was one hundred years (comp. Gen_15:16, "In the fourth generation they shall come hither"). This is explained in Gen_15:13, and in Exo_12:40, to be four hundred years. Caleb was fourth in descent from Judah, and Moses and Aaron were fourth from Levi.
In Deu_1:35; Deu_2:14, Moses uses the term for thirty- eight years. In later times (Baruch 6, in the Epistle of Jeremiah, ver. 2) γενεά clearly means ten years. In Mat_1:17, γενεά means a single descent from father to son. Homer uses the word in the same sense (II. 1:250); also Herodotus (1:3). (See Gesenius’s and Robinson’s Lexicons, under the above Heb. and Gr. words.) — Kitto, s.v. SEE GENEALOGY.
