And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
19. Lamech ] The seventh of the Cainite line has three sons, as Noah, the tenth of the Sethite line, has three sons.
two wives ] Lamech is the first recorded instance of polygamy. The custom, prevalent in patriarchal times and in the days of the kings (e.g. David, Solomon), was recognized in the Law of the Pentateuch and placed under restrictions, Deu 21:13-23, Lev 18:6-20.
On the ideal of monogamy, from which Israel fell far short, see note on Gen 2:24. Lamech, the Cainite, is its first transgressor.
Adah ] The name appears in Gen 36:2 as that of one of Esau’s wives. If of Hebrew origin, possibly connected with the word meaning “adornment,” but also possibly derived from a root = “brightness,” found in Arabic and Assyrian, and, if so, may mean “the dawn.”
Zillah ] Probably from the Heb. l = “shade” or “shadows,” implying “comfort” and “coolness” in the glare of a day in the desert.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 19. Lamech took – two wives] He was the first who dared to reverse the order of God by introducing polygamy; and from him it has been retained, practised, and defended to the present day.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lamech, the wicked branch of that cursed root of Cain,
took unto him two wives, against Gods first institution, Gen 2:24; Mal 2:15, and without Gods leave.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. Lamech took unto him twowivesThis is the first transgression of the law of marriage onrecord, and the practice of polygamy, like all other breaches ofGod’s institutions, has been a fruitful source of corruption andmisery.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Lamech took unto him two wives,…. He was the first we read of that introduced polygamy, contrary to the first institution of marriage, whereby only one man and one woman were to be joined together, and become one flesh, Ge 2:24. This evil practice, though it began in the race of wicked Cain, was in later ages followed by some among the people of God, which was connived at because of the hardness of their hearts; otherwise it was not so from the beginning. This was the first instance of it known; Jarchi says it was the way of the generation before the flood to have one wife for procreation of children, and the other for carnal pleasure; the latter drank a cup of sterility, that she might be barren, and was adorned as a bride, and lived deliciously; and the other was used roughly, and mourned like a widow; but by this instance it does not appear, for these both bore children to Lamech.
The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah; whose daughters they were cannot be said, no doubt of the race of Cain; the name of the one signifies an “ornament”, or beauty, and might seem to answer to the account Jarchi gives of the wife for pleasure, if there were any foundation for it; and the other signifies a “shadow”, being continually under the shadow of her husband.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Family of Lamech. | B. C. 3875. |
19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21 And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
We have here some particulars concerning Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain. Observe,
I. His marrying two wives. It was one of the degenerate race of Cain who first transgressed that original law of marriage that two only should be one flesh. Hitherto one man had but one wife at a time; but Lamech took two. From the beginning it was not so.Mal 2:15; Mat 19:5. See here, 1. Those who desert God’s church and ordinances lay themselves open to all manner of temptation. 2. When a bad custom is begun by bad men sometimes men of better characters are, through unwariness, drawn in to follow them. Jacob, David, and many others, who were otherwise good men, were afterwards ensnared in this sin which Lamech begun.
II. His happiness in his children, notwithstanding this. Though he sinned, in marrying two wives, yet he was blessed with children by both, and those such as lived to be famous in their generation, not for their piety, no mention is made of this (for aught that appears they were the heathen of that age), but for their ingenuity. They were not only themselves men of business, but men that were serviceable to the world, and eminent for the invention, or at least the improvement, of some useful arts. 1. Jabal was a famous shepherd; he delighted much in keeping cattle himself, and was so happy in devising methods of doing it to the best advantage, and instructing others in them, that the shepherds of those times, nay, the shepherds of after-times, called him father; or perhaps, his children after him being brought up to the same employment, the family was a family of shepherds. 2. Jubal was a famous musician, and particularly an organist, and the first that gave rules for the noble art or science of music. When Jabal had set them in a way to be rich, Jubal put them in a way to be merry. Those that spend their days in wealth will not be without the timbrel and harp, Job 21:12; Job 21:13. From his name, Jubal, probably the jubilee-trumpet was so called; for the best music was that which proclaimed liberty and redemption. Jabal was their Pan and Jubal their Apollo. 3. Tubal Cain was a famous smith, who greatly improved the art of working in brass and iron, for the service both of war and husbandry. He was their Vulcan. See here, (1.) That worldly things are the only things that carnal wicked people set their hearts upon and are most ingenious and industrious about. So it was with this impious race of cursed Cain. Here were a father of shepherds and a father of musicians, but not a father of the faithful. Here was one to teach in brass and iron, but none to teach the good knowledge of the Lord. Here were devices how to be rich, and how to be mighty, and how to be merry, but nothing of God, nor of his fear and service, among them. Present things fill the heads of most people. (2.) That even those who are destitute of the knowledge and grace of God may be endued with many excellent and useful accomplishments, which may make them famous and serviceable in their generation. Common gifts are given to bad men, while God chooses to himself the foolish things of the world.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 19-24:
Cain’s descendant, Lamech, is humanity’s first polygamist. The names of his two wives is significant. “Adah” means “ornament, or the adorned one,” and “Zillah” means “shadow” or “musical one.” This implies that Lamech chose his wives solely on the basis of sensual attractions. The sanctity of marriage was of no consequence to him.
Adah bore to Lamech a son whom they named “Jabal.” His name means “traveller,” and reflects his nomadic occupation. He became the “father,” av, progenitor or founder of a nation, of those nomadic tent-dwellers who developed the breeding and pasturing of cattle and other large domesticated animals for the main purpose of procuring wealth.
Adah also bore a son named “Jubal” whose name signifies a jubilant or joyful sound. His offspring introduced the art and science of music. Their music was not for the purpose of praising and honoring Jehovah (Ps 150), but of gratifying the senses of their sin-nature. “Harp” is kinnor, a stringed instrument played on by the plectrum. It corresponds to the lyre. “Organ” is ugabh, the root word being “to breath or blow.” It denotes a wind instrument, including the shepherd’s reed, or bagpipe.
The crafts and arts and sciences practiced by Cain’s descendants reflect a lifestyle that is sensual, luxurious, dedicated only to material values. There is no thought of Jehovah in what they do.
Zillah bore a son named “Tubal-caln.” He became skilled in metallurgy and in smith-work. By this craft he could produce both implements to be used in farming operations and in military pursuits. The name “Tubal” comes from the same root as “Jabal,” and “Jubal,” which means “to flow.” This refers to their nomadic nature, as well as to the crafts they employed.
Zillah also bore a daughter, “Naamah,” whose name means “the beautiful one.” The implication of the names of the women in Lamech’s life is that men had ceased to think of marriage as a sacred relationship in which the woman is the helper and complement in the husband-wife relationship. Man’s primary concern in marriage became physical attraction. The further deterioration of the lineage of Cain shows the consequences of this.
Lamech’s song to his wives is defiant and filled with self-pride. The language implies that a “young man,” or a strong and virile man, had slightly wounded Lamech, and lightly bruised him. Lamech reacted violently, killing the young man. He then boasts that he would extract vengeance seventy-seven fold greater than that promised to any who would harm Cain, should anyone seek to punish him for what he had done.
Cain’s pride and rebellion against God shows up in the history of his offspring. He started the family movement away from God, and his children kept it going and even increased in rebellion, see Ex 20:5; 34:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. And Lamech took unto him two wives. We have here the origin of polygamy in a perverse and degenerate race; and the first author of it, a cruel man, destitute of all humanity. Whether he had been impelled by an immoderate desire of augmenting his own family, as proud and ambitious men are wont to be, or by mere lust, it is of little consequence to determine; because, in either way he violated the sacred law of marriage, which had been delivered by God. For God had determined, that “the two should be one flesh,” and that is the perpetual order of nature. Lamech, with brutal contempt of God, corrupts nature’s laws. The Lord, therefore, willed that the corruption of lawful marriage should proceed from the house of Cain, and from the person of Lamech, in order that polygamists might be ashamed of the example.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 4:23. Adah and Zillah.] Probably the oldest fragment of poetry extant. With a slight freedom of translation, we may perhaps thus approach the metrical cast of the original:
Adah and Zillah! hear ye my voice,
Ye wives of Lamech! give ear to my tale:
A MAN have I slain in dealing my wounds,
Yea, a YOUTH in striking my blows:
Since SEVENFOLD is to be the avenging of Cain,
Then, OF LAMECH, seventy and seven!
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 4:19-26
LAMECH
Gen. 4:23-24. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt; if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs serves to keep pure tradition, the only way in which religious truth was then transmitted. It also caused character to be very fully developedthe righteous and the wickedthis instance.
I. The case of Lamech shews the effect of an abandonment of the Churchs fellowship. 1st. The end and use of ordinances. 2nd. These are enjoyed only in the Church. 3rd. Cain and his posterity forsook the fellowship of the Church, and lost its privileges. 4th. Mark the effect of this in Lamech.
1. In his government of himself, unrestrained by Divine precepts, a polygamist.
2. In household government, a tyrant.
3. In his character as a member of society, a murderer. One sin leads to another.
II. The case of Lamech shews that outward prosperity is no sure mark of Gods favour. 1st. We have seen Lamechs character. 2nd. He was remarkable for family prosperity (Gen. 4:20-22). 3rd. Gods dealings with His people have all a reference to their spiritual and eternal good. 4th. Hence they have not uninterrupted prosperity. 5th. To the ungodly, temporal good is cursed, and becomes a curseincreased responsibility, increased guilt. 6th. Splendid masked miseryembroidered shroudsculptured tomb. 7th. The graces of poetry given herespeech of Lamech.
III. The case of Lamech shews that the dealings of God are misunderstood and misinterpreted by the ungodly. 1st. God protected Cain by a special Providence, that his sentence might take effect. 2nd. Lamech argues from this, that he is under a similar special Providence. 3rd. Commonthey who despise Divine things still know as much of them as is convenient for their reasonings. Doctrinesdepravity, election, justification by faith IncidentsNoah, David; Peter, malefactor on the crossAll things work &c. Because sentence against, &c. Ecc. 8:11. 4th. Satan thus uses something like the sword of the Spiritinfuses poison into the Word of Life. 5th. The Scriptures are thus by men made to injure them fatally. They wrest them to their own destructionfood in a weak stomacha weed in a rich soil.
(1.) See the effects of a departure from God.
(2.) Avoid the first step.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 4:19-22. Wives and offspring may be given to the most wicked in great number.
All arts and endowments, liberal and mechanical, may be vouchsafed to ungodly men.
Wicked men may be renowned for external inventions.
All such endowments leave men without grace and without God.
Gods curse works through such providential privileges to the wicked.
In the sixth generation from Cain, his descendants are noticed as introducing great improvements and refinements into the system of society. Not only farming and manufactures, but music and poetry flourished among them. In farming, Jabal gave a new form to the occupations of the shepherd and the herdsman; he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle (Gen. 4:20). In manufactures, Tubal Cain promoted the use of scientific tools, being the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron (Gen. 4:22). Jubal, again, excelled in the science of melody, standing at the head of the profession of all such as handle the harp and organ (Gen. 4:21). And Lamech himself, in his address to his two wives, gives the first specimen on record of primval poetry, or the art of versification in measured couplets, or parallel lines redoubling and repeating the sense (Gen. 4:23-24).
Adah and Zillah, hear my voice!
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech:
For I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man to my hurt.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Truly Lamech, seventy-and-sevenfold.
[Dr. Candelish.]
Thus in the apostate race, driven to the use of their utmost natural ingenuity, and full of secular ambition, the pomp of cities, and the manifold inventions of a flourishing community, arose and prospered. They increased in power, in wealth, and in luxury. In almost all earthly advantages, they attained to a superiority over the more simple and rural family of Seth. And they afford an instance of the high cultivation which a people may often possess who are altogether irreligious and ungodly, as well as of the progress which they may make in the arts and embellishments of life [Dr. Candelish].
Gen. 4:23-24. Polygamy from the first has brought intestine vexations into families.
A lustful spirit will be tyrannical also.
Gods forbearance of some wicked ones makes others impudent to sin.
Lust will make men pervert the righteous word of God to their destruction.
Gen. 4:25-26. The character of the ungodly family of Cainites was now fully developed in Lamech and his children. The history, therefore, turns from them to indicate the progress of the godly race. After Abels death a third son was born to Adam, to whom his mother gave the name of Seth, the appointed one, the compensation.
We have here an account of the commencement of that worship of God which consists in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, or in the acknowledgment and celebration of the mercy and help of Jehovah. While the family of Cainites, by the erection of a city, and the invention and development of worldly arts and business, were laying the foundation for the kingdom of this world; the family of the Sethites began, by united invocation of the name of the God of grace, to found and to erect the Kingdom of God [Keil and Delitzsch].
There is a time to break off sad lament for departed saints.
Mens names are sometimes as prophecies and doctrines to Gods church.
God has set His church to grow and none can hinder it.
God has stated times of renewing His worship where it has declined.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Difficulty! Gen. 4:1. This was an hour of great difficultyof intense anxietyof appalling perplexity to Adam. Was he to be left aloneburdened with a weight of woeabandoned to his own blind guidanceallowed to wander anywhere amid the Ddalian mazes of ignorance and folly? No; God would help him, if he would but take hold of His Divine Hand. Papa! It is dark! Take my hand! I reached out my hand, and took her tiny one in my own, clasping it firmly. A sigh of relief came up from her little heart. All her loneliness and fear were gone, and in a few moments she was sound sleep again. It was the voice of my little daughter sleeping in the crib beside my bedat the very moment that I was awake amid the darkness of Providence. I lay awake thinking, until my brain grew wild with uncertainty. Again and again I took up and considered the difficulties of my situationlooking to the right and the left for ways of extrication; but all was dark. Presently my little girls timid voice broke faintly on my ears; and I, tooin an almost wild outburst of feelingcried: Father in Heaven, it is dark; take, oh! take my hand. Then a great peace fell on me. The terror of darkness was gone. So with Adam; perplexed at first, he learned to take the proffered hand of God:
Child! take MY hand,
Cling close to Me: Ill lead thee through the land;
Trust My all-seeing care; so shalt thou stand
Midst glory bright above.
Employment! Gen. 4:2. Lord Tenterden was proud to point out to his son the shop in which his father had shaved persons for a penny. But men, as Beecher comments, seem ashamed of labour. They aim to lead a life of emasculated idleness and laziness. Like the polyps that float useless and nasty upon the seaall jelly and flabby, no muscle or bone; it opens and shutsshuts and openssucks in and squirts outsuch are these poor fools. Their parents toiled and grew strongbuilt up their forms of iron and bone; but they themselves are boneless, without sinew of mind or muscle of heart.
Better to sink beneath the shock,
Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.Byron.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Types! Gen. 4:3. Reflected light has the marvellous power of painting the object from which it is thrown; hence our photographic likenesses. Thus the light of the Lord Jesus, radiating on our souls from the mirror of the Word, fixes His image there. The photographic discovery is a modern one, but God the Spirit has been painting the likeness of Christ upon souls from the beginning. They are one
With Him, and in their souls His image bear,
Rejoicing in the likeness.Upham.
Fire! Gen. 4:4. Fire was a symbol of the Divine Presence; and in the literature and customs of the East the same thing is asserted. In the ancient writings, where the marriages of the gods and demi-gods are described, it is always said the ceremony was performed in the presence of the God of Fire. In respectable marriages in India, fire is an important element in their celebration. It is made, says Roberts, of the wood of the mango-tree; and is kindled in the centre of the room, while round it walk the bride and bridegroom amid the Brahmin incantations. Is this a perversion of the primval truth that Gods appearance by fire was His witness to the mystical union between Abels soul and His Son Jesus Christ?
The smoke of sacrifice arose, and God
Smelld a sweet savour of obedient faith.
Atonement! Gen. 4:4. The startling word blood would be the last a man would select for a symbol of peace and purity. While blood would render whatever it touches impure, it is the only thing that takes away the stain of sin. Nearly every heathen nation has had this moral intuition of the necessity of atoning blood. It remained for Christianity to have an excrescence such as that of the Unitarians, who declaim against a religion of blood, and atonement of blood. And yet is not the blood of atonement the leading idea in the Bible? It is like the scarlet thread which runs through all the naval clothcut it where you please, that vein of crimson is visible. The word atonement is constantly used to signify the reconciliation to God by bloody sacrifices. The priest made atonement by sacrificefirst for his own sins, and then for the sins of all the people.
With bloodbut not his ownthe awful sign
At once of sins desert and guilts remission,
The Jew besought the clemency divine,
The hope of mercy blending with contrition.Conder.
Disappointment! Gen. 4:5. The offering of Cain was like a beautiful present, but there was no sorrow for sin in itno asking for pardonand so God would not receive it. Mother wont take my book, once sobbed out a little boyholding in his hand a very beautiful little volume prettily bound, with gilt edges to the leaves. It was a pretty present, purchased with the pocket-money which he had been for weeks saving for his mothers birthday; and now she would not have it. But she did take the needle-book and purse which her little daughter presented to her. Why did she refuse the beautiful gift of her boy? He had been naughtyselfish, passionate, falseand had not at all repented; and so when he brought his offering, she put it gently on one side, saying, No, Charlie. He turned away sullenly, muttering that he did not care, and beginning to cherish feelings of a bad kind towards his sister. But after a while he came to himselfstole into the room, flung himself on her shoulder, confessed his fault with tears, and found favour with his mother. By-and-by, she tenderly whispered, You may bring your present. So God acted with Cain, but he would persist in obduracy of heart, of which one might say:
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that (than which whats harder?)Shakespeare.
Blood! Gen. 4:7. In nearly every country, men have felt that bloodshedding was an essential element of religious belief. A Thug at Meerut, who had been guilty of many murders, was arrested and placed in prison. Whilst there, a missionary visited himbrought him to embrace the Gospel, and to consent to confess his crimes. On his trial, he accordingly avowed the sins of his dreadful lifeand after recounting murder after murder, he declared that he had committed them in the full belief that, by the shedding of the blood of each victim, he would not only please the dreadful goddess Kali, but also procure her favour for the life to come. He then took out a Bible from his linen vest, and said: Had I but received this book sooner, I should not have done it, for I find that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which at the mercy-seat of God
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For meeen for my soulwas shed.Wesley.
Murder! Gen. 4:7. Blood will out is the blunt phrase of an old proverb or saw. Did Cain hide the body? Yet no matter, whether the lifeless corpse lay with its face open to the noonday sun, or buried in the leafy recesses of some thickset grove, or shrouded in the gloomy damps of some subterranean cavern: God could see it. He could hear the call of Justice. How strangely deeds of blood are disclosed! Two French merchants, relates Clarke, were travelling to a fair, and, while passing through a wood, one of them murdered the other, and robbed him of his money. After burying him to prevent discovery, he proceeded on his journey; but the murdered mans dog remained behind. His howling attracted passers-by, who were led to search the spot. The fair being ended, they watched the return of the merchants; and the murderer no sooner made his appearance than the dog sprung furiously upon him. Be sure your sin will find you out. How terribly was this exemplified in the case of Eugene Aram, whose very conscience at last unfolded the tale:
He told how murderers walk the earth
Beneath the curse of Cain,
With crimson clouds before their eyes,
And flames about their brain.Hood.
Conscience! Gen. 4:8. Away in the wilds of New Zealand, a noble champion of the Cross, once overheard a native voice from amid a tangled maze of brushwood praying that God would make sin as sensitive to his soul as a speck of dust is to the apple of the eye. Keep your conscience tender, tender as the eye that closes its lids against an atom of dust; or as that sensitive plant which shrinks when its leaves are touched, ay, even when the breath of the mouth falls on it. Had Cain but heeded this! Had he only taken notice of the first speck of dust that fell, of the first prick of the pin that reached, of the first breath of sin that rested on his conscience, all might have been well. There is a species of poplar, whose leaves are rustled by a breeze too faint to stir the foilage of other trees; and such should have been the conscience of Cain, easily moved by the little sins of envy and dislike. There would then have been no cry of brothers blood, no need for him to wander forth
Like a deer in the fright of the chase,
With a fire in his heart, and a brand on his face.
Retribution! Gen. 4:8. The deed is done, and blood stains the hand of Cain, a brothers blood. The ocean, with all its fierce and furious waves, cannot wash out the scarlet dye. Agonies of remorse cannot recall it. And yet these probably were not slight. Some have supposed that he showed no compunction for the cruel crime, and that his heart was ice. But if it was ice, it was that of the Arctic, beneath whose thick crust throb the waves, and move the reptiles of the deep. Far down within his breast, the waters of remorse were surging and muddy; and
From that day forth no place to him could be
So lonely, but that thence might come a pang
Brought from without to inward misery.Wordsworth.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Conviction! Gen. 4:9. When Richard the Lion was on his return from the Holy Land, he was taken captive by his enemy the Archduke of Austria, and thrown into an unknown dungeon. His favorite minstrel went in search of him, having only the clue that his master was imprisoned in a castle in some mountain-forest. At last his music found out the prison, for one day when Blondel was playing his favorite air beneath the castle wall, Richard recognized the music and voice. When Adam was captive in Satans dungeon, Gods Divine voice called him forth to penitence in vain. Now the same voice of Divine music seeks to awaken echoes in the heart of Cain, to arouse him to contrition by the consciousness of conviction. But all in vain! No; the hardened heart breaks not. The sullen lips pour forth no cry for pardon. No contrition asks for mercy. Rather does his answer imply reproach, as when Adam said: The woman whom THOU gavest me
The unclean spirit
That from my childhood up, hath tortured me,
Hath been too cunning and too strong for me.
Am I to blame for this?
Remorse! Gen. 4:9. Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the senate that he suffered death daily; and Trapp tells us of Richard III that, after the murder of his two innocent nephews, he had fearful dreams and visions, would leap out of his bed, and, catching his sword, would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own-occasioned disquiet. If, therefore, men more or less familiarized with crime and deeds of blood, had the fangs of the serpent ever probing their breasts, is it unreasonable to conclude that Cain knew seasons of sad regrets? If he had not, Gods enquiry soon stirred up the pangs! The cruel Montassar, having assassinated his father, was one day admiring a beautiful painting of a man on horseback, with a diadem encircling his head, and a Persian inscription. Enquiring the significance of the words, he was told that they were: I am Shiunjeh, the son of Kosru, who murdered my father, and possessed the crown only six months. Montassar turned pale, horrors of remorse at once seized on him, frightful dreams interrupted his slumbers until he died. And no sooner did God address the first fratricide, than conscience roused herself to inflict poignant pains:
O the wrath of the Lord is a terrible thing!
Like the tempest that withers the blossoms of spring,
Like the thunder that bursts on the summers domain,
It fell on the head of the homicide Cain.
Guilt! (Gen. 4:12.) Pilkington very excellently likens the pangs of conscious guilt to the groundswell after a storm, which mariners tell us appears long after the storm has ceased, and far off from its locality. They come up in awful vividness; as when a flash of lightning reveals but for a moment the dangers of a shipwrecked crew. They have long been covered up, but only covered like the carvings of some old minster, or like that invisible ink which needs but the fire to bring out legibly the handwriting on the wall of conscience. For a moment are the stings of some; but not so Cainsthere they remained, acute and anguished; and of him we may say figuratively:
As he plodded on, with sullen clang
A sound of chains aloud the desert rang.
Martyrs! (Gen. 4:12.) How early, says Bishop Hall, did martyrdom come into the world! The first man that dieddied for religion; and the greatest lesson, as Green remarks in this chapter, is that the first man saved went to heaven just as all of us must doif we are to be saved at all. It must have been a strange, yet happy day for the angels of God when His spirit came among them from this far-off world. He had sinnedthey had never fallen. He had laboured and sorrowedthey had never shed a tear for themselves. He had diedthey knew not what death was. But now his soul is among themsinging, not their song, but a new oneone all his own. As he sings, how every seraphic harp is silent, and every seraphic heart is still to hear
The song that neer was sung before
A sinner reached the heavenly shore;
And now does sound for evermore.
Disclosure! (Gen. 4:9.) How long it was before God met him, we are not toldsome suppose that it was on his way back from the deed of blood. Others think that probably days and weeks elapsedthat the parents, like Jacob, had come to believe Abel dead at the hands of the wild beasts, and that possibly Cain was all the more fondly cherished. If so, was Cains conscience at ease? Or, did he have his hours of moodiness, when his wondering parents heard him start and mutter:
Too late! Too late! I shall not see him more
Among the living! That sweet, patient face
Will never more rebuke me?
Very recently, a murderer buried his victim in the warehouse attached to his business premises. For months, the disconsolate parents sought their daughter far and nearbesought her paramour to disclose the secret of her absence; but in vain. For twelve long weary months no trace of the missing one could be discovered; and then a trivial act of carelessness revealed the mystery of death. Yet, he had been heard to wish at times that he had never been born, or was dead:
It were a mercy
That I were dead, or never had been born.Longfellow.
Condemnation! Gen. 4:13. Very little idea can be formed of the sufferings of Cain, when we read that God visited him with life-long remorse. John Randolph, in his last illness, said to his doctor: Remorse! Remorse! Remorse! Let me see the word! show it to me in a dictionary. There being none at hand, he asked the surgeon to write it out for him, then having looked at it carefully, he exclaimed: Remorse! you do not know what it means. Happy are those who never know. It gives, as Thomas says, a terrible form and a horrible voice to everything beautiful and musical without. It is recorded of Bessusa native of Polonia in Greecethat the notes of birds were so insufferable to him, as they never ceased chirping the murder of his fatherthat he would tear down their nests and destroy both young and old. The music of the sweet songsters of the grove were as the shrieks of hell to a guilty conscience. And how terribly would the familiar things of life become to Cain a source of agony!
The kiss of his children shall scorch him like flame,
When he thinks of the curse that hangs over his name,
And the wife of his bosomthe faithful and fair,
Can mix no sweet drop in his cup of despair:
For her tender caress, and her innocent breath,
But still in his soul the hot embers of deathKnox.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Godless Prosperity! (Gen. 4:20.) How pitifully foolish, exclaims Law, are the votaries of the world! They may have gifts, which glitter splendidly; but it is only for a speck of time. Their brightest sun soon sets in darkest night. Their joys are no true joys, while they remain; but their continuance is a fleeting dream. Their flowers have many a thorn, and in the plucking fade. Their fruitless blossoms soon decay. Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have often more than heart could wish; and yet all this has its endlike the pampered sacrificial victim described in Prescots History of Mexico. For twelve months, the intended sacrifice was allowed to revel in every luxuryto indulge in every pleasure; only to be laid on the altar and have his palpitating heart torn from his breast. What shall I come to, father, exclaimed a young man, if I go on prospering in this way?to which enquiry the parent tersely and tritely responded: The grave. The tinsel glare, says Secker, is too apt to offend the weak eyes of a saint. Alas! why should we envy him a little light, who is to be shrouded in everlasting darkness? For
When Fortune, thus has tossed her child in air,
Snatched from the covert of an humble state,
How often have I seen him dropped at once!
Our mornings envy! and our evenings sigh!Young.
First Step! Evil once introduced spreads as a flame amongst dry stubble. The weedonce rootedcan hardly be eradicated; and, like that great aquatic plant introduced from America, will spread on all sides. Mortify the first sin; for by yielding to it you may found a pyramid of misery. One fault indulged in soon swells into a deepening torrent, and widens into a boundless sea. One little leak may sink the boldest ship. It is said of Tiberius that, whilst Augustus ruled, he was no way tainted in his reputation; but that, when once he gave way to sin, there was no crime to which he was not accessory. When Lamech was yet a youth, he probably displayed no disposition to great crimes; but no sooner had he married two wives in violation of the Divine command than he gradually loosened all moral restrictions, and gave full vent to his passionsculminating in homicide. Avoid the first step!
One mischief entered brings another in;
The second pulls a thirdthe third draws more,
And they for all the rest, set ope the door.Smith.
Church! (Gen. 4:26.) The little seed which prophecy planted in Eden grows age by age more vast than that tree which the prophet beheld in vision, whose height reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. There are lofty heights in nature, says Bate, which catch the morning sun before it has risen in the valleys, and which stand up glowing in the golden light when the shades of evening have wrapped these in deepening dusk. And so there are countries in which the Church has shed her light far and wide, while others remain in gloom of heathen ignorance. But as the sun before it has completed its circuit lights up every vale and hill, so the Church shall grow to her full dimensions in spite of all hindrances. It has entwined its roots through all the shadowy institutions of the elder dispensation, and standing tall and erect in the midst of the new, it defiesto use the sentiment of Wisemanthe whirlwind and the lightning, the draught and scorching sun. Like the prophets vineit will spread its branches to the uttermost parts of the earth, to feed them with the sweetest fruits of holiness.
Long as the world itself shall last,
The sacred Banyan still shall spread,
From clime to climefrom age to age,
Its sheltering shadow shall be shed.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(19-22) Lamech took unto him two wives.Whether polygamy began with Lamech is uncertain, but it is in keeping with the insolent character of the man. The names of his wives bear testimony to the existence, even at this early date, of considerable refinement; for I can scarcely believe that we need go to the Assyrian dialect for the meaning of two words for which Hebrew suffices. They are explained in Assyrian as being edhatu, darkness, and tzillatu, the shades of night. In Hebrew Adah means ornament, especially that which is for the decoration of the person; while Zillah means shadow, which agrees very closely with the Assyrian explanation. Both have distinguished children. Jabal, Adahs eldest son, took to a nomadic life, whence his name, which means wanderer, and was looked up to by the nomad tribes as their founder. The difference between their mode of life and that of Abel was that they perpetually changed their habitation, while he remained in the neighbourhood of Adams dwelling. The younger, Jubal, that is, the music-player, was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. Of these instruments, the kinnr, always translated harp in our version, was certainly a stringed instrument, a guitar or lyre. The other, in Hebrew ugab, is mentioned only in Job. 21:12; Job. 30:31; Psa. 150:4. It was a small wind instrument, a reed or pipe.
The son of Zillah attained to higher distinction. He is the first sharpener (or hammerer) of every instrument of copper and iron. Copper is constantly found cropping up in a comparatively pure state upon the surface of the ground, and was the first metal made use of by man. It is comparatively soft, and is easily beaten to an edge; but it was long before men learned the art of mixing with it an alloy of tin, and so producing the far harder substance, bronze. The alloy to which we give the name of brass was absolutely unknown to the ancients. The discovery of iron marks a far greater advance in metallurgy, as the ore has to be smelted, and the implement produced is more precious. The Greeks in the time of Homer seem to have known it only as a rarity imported from the north; and Rawlinson (Anc. Monarchies, i. 167) mentions that in Mesopotamia, while silver was the metal current in traffic, iron was so rare as to be regarded as something very precious. The name of this hero is Tubal-cain. In Eze. 27:13, Tubal brings copper to the mart of Tyre, and in Persian the word means copper. Cain is a distinct name from that of Adams firstborn, and means, in most Semitic languages, smith; thus Tubal-cain probably signifies coppersmith.
The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.The same as Naomi (Rth. 1:2), and meaning beauty, loveliness. As women are not mentioned in the genealogies, and as no history follows of this personage, her name must be given as an indication that a great advance had been made, not only in the arts, but also in the elegancies of life. Women could not have been mere drudges and household slaves, nor men coarse and boorish, when Naamahs beauty was so highly appreciated. The Rabbins have turned her into a demon, and given free play to their imagination in the stories they have invented concerning her.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Lamech took two wives Here is the first recorded instance of bigamy, and it is here noted as originating in the race of Cain . “The names of the women,” says Keil, “are indicative of sensual attractions, Adah, the adorned; and Zillah, the shady, or the tinkling . ”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Lamech took two wives, the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah.’
Here we have the first suggestion of someone having more than one wife. It may have been a boast to Lamech, but the compiler of the Genesis 1-11 epic probably saw it as another downward step in man’s continuing fall.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 4:19. Lamech took unto him two wives, &c. This account of Lamech has been the subject of much inquiry; and indeed it is very difficult to be understood. “That Lamech had used force against some other man,” says Dr. Delaney, “is evident: as also that he thought himself much more criminal in doing so, even than Cain; as appears from the words, if Cain shall be, &c.” Now the true reason why God guarded Cain from destruction, under so severe a penalty upon any one who should slay him, was demonstrably this: that he might preserve him, as a living monument of the curse of God upon murder. Granting this to be the reason, and that Lamech knew it, (as he could not but know it,) his exclamation to his wives is plainly a confession that he had been guilty of a much greater crime than Cain; and therefore concluded, that God might justly render him a much more dreadful monument of his wrath than he had rendered Cain; and in this terror, that bitter exclamation falls from him, if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 4:19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
Ver. 19. Lamech took unto himself. ] As his own lust led him, not caring for consent of parents. And two wives, a as little caring for the command of God, that “two,” and no more, “should be one flesh,” Gen 2:24 yea, though he “had the residue of the spirit,” and so could have made many wives for Adam, yet “made he but one,” saith the prophet b Mal 2:15 And wherefore one? but that he might seek a godly seed. Solomon’s polygamy was punished with barrenness. We read not of any son he had but one, and he none of the wisest neither, Rehoboam. This great king had but one son by many housefuls of wives, when many a poor man hath a house full of children by one wife. Erasmus tells a story of a poor English cripple, lame on both legs, that married a blind woman, and gave this reason, We shall the better agree, when neither can hit other in the teeth with our several defects and deformities. Nec fefellit hominem iudicium , saith he; it proved a happy match. They lived lovingly and cheerfully together, and God Almighty blessed them with a dozen lusty boys, that had not the least deformity about them. c Sardus tells us, that the old Britons would ten or twelve of them take one woman to wife. d Likely women were scarce among them. But yet that was better than the old Scots, of whom St Hierome reports, that they took no wives; but satisfied their lusts up and down as they wished, and wheresoever they liked, after the manner of brute creatures. e I have somewhere read, that not many hundreds of years since, they had a custom kept up among them, that the landlord might demand the first night of his tenant’s wife, as a chief rent. And Mr Fox relates, f that the friars in Germany were grown to that height of impudence, as to require the tenth night of every man’s wife, as a tithe due to them. Which to prevent, the Helvetians, when they received any new priest into their churches, they bargained with him before, to take his concubine, lest he should attempt any misuse of their wives and daughters. How much better were it, for the “avoiding of fornication, if every man of them had his own wife,” saith Paul. 1Co 7:2 Not so, not so, saith Cardinal Campeius; g for if comparison should be made, much greater offence it is, a priest to have a wife, than to have and keep at home many harlots; for they that keep harlots, saith he, as it is naught that they do, so do they acknowledge their sin; the other persuade themselves they do well, and so continue without repentance, or conscience of their fact. A fit reason for a carnal cardinal. Such another was his brother, Cardinalis Cremonensis, who after his stout replying in the Council of London, against the married estate of priests, exclaiming what a shameful thing it was to rise from the sides of a whore, to make Christ’s body, the night following was shamefully taken with a notable whore. h This was bad enough, but that was worse in Johannes from Casa, Dean of the Pope’s chamber, who so far forgot humanity and honesty, that he set forth a book in Italian metre, in commendation of Sodomitry, saying that he never used any other. i This might better have become a Turk, than a bishop. Sodomy in the Levant is not held a vice, so debauched they are grown. j The Turkish bashaws, besides their wives, whereof they have ten at least, each bashaw has as many, or likely more calamites, which are their serious loves. For their wives are used but to dress their meat, to laundress, and for reputation. k Only when the great Turk gives his daughter or sister to any bashaw to wife, it is somewhat otherwise. For he gives her at the same time a dagger, saying, I give you to this man to be your slave and bedfellow. If he is not loving, obedient, and dutiful to thee, I give you here this cunzhare or dagger to cut off his head. l Yet can she not forbid him to marry more wives “to vex her,” Lev 18:18 and fret her, as Peninnah did Hannah, 1Sa 1:6 yea, to make her to thunder, as the word here signifies: for Turks may take as many wives as they are able to maintain. Hence it is that in jealousy they exceed Italians, making their women go muffled all but their eyes; and not suffering them to go to church, or so much as look out of their own windows. m
a Lamech polygamus unam costam in duas divisit . – Hier .
b Heroum filii noxae .
c Procreatis ex isto coniugio duodecim fratribus, nulloque naevo deformatis . – Dei Instit. Matr.
d Deni duodenique unam uxorem ducebant .- De Morib. Gent ., lib. i., cap. 1.
e Ut cuique libitum fuerit, pecudum more lasciviunt. – Twini, Comment. de reb. Britan. ex Hieron .
f Act. and Mon ., fol. 791.
g Ibid. 790.
h Ibid. 1065.
i Act and Mon ., 1417.
j Blunt’s Voyage , p. 79.
k Blunt, 14.
l Heyl., Geog ., p. 583.
m Blunt, 106.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
two. The first polygamist.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
two wives: Gen 2:18, Gen 2:24, Mat 19:4-6, Mat 19:8
Reciprocal: Lev 18:18 – wife 1Sa 1:2 – two 2Ch 24:3 – two wives
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
AN EARLY CHAUVINIST
And Lamech took unto him two wives, etc.
Gen 4:19-24
Here we have I. A violator of the Divine law of marriage.Monogamy was the Divine law of marriage, and in all likelihood this rule had been observed till Lamechs time. The general opinion is, that Lamech was the first to disobey this law by taking two wives. The fact would scarcely have been recorded, had it not been intended to note a new departure from the established order of things. This was his invention, his legacy to the human racea legacy which perhaps the larger half of men still inherit to their cost and ours. Kitto quaintly remarks, Lamech had his troubles, as a man with two wives was likely to have, and always has had: but whether or not his troubles grew directly out of his polygamy is not clearly disclosed. Some scholars think that it was this infraction of the monogamic law that brought Lamech into the danger of punishment by his fellows, and that he here vaunts his power to meet any objector to his conduct. This, however, is only matter of conjecture. His sinfulness in the matter is more apparent. The marriage-law lies at the foundation of family happiness and social order. Compare monogamic with polygamic peoples. Mahometanism in the Eastern and Mormonism in the Western world.
II. A proof that worldly prosperity is no necessary sign of the Divine favour.Lamech was a prosperous man, as things went in those primitive times. His family was numerous and rarely gifted. Jabal was the inventor, so to speak, of the nomadic pastoral life, and the possessor of flocks and herds; Jubal was the inventor, in their first rude forms, of harp and organstringed and wind instruments; whilst Tubal-Cain was the inventor of edged tools for domestic and military purposes, of such use and service to mankind as to make him equally famous with his brothers. According to Josephus, he was also of great strength and distinguished for martial performances. His sister, Naamah, is one of the four women of antediluvian times mentioned in Scripture; and according to the Rabbis, was the mistress of lamenters and singers. But gifts and graces do not necessarily go together. The Cainite race was an ungodly one, and the family of Lamech was no exception to the general rule. Worldly fame, wealth, accomplishments may all exist, without being sanctified by the smile of God. To Lamech the Divine grace of poesy seems to have been given, but his Parnassus was a hot volcano. He sings not Gods praise, but his own; not of peace, but of bloodshed. Are not worldly prosperity and spiritual leanness often to be found together still? Are there no rich paupers, millionaire bankrupts, well-housed wanderers enjoying life in a materialistic way, and yet of whom it is sadly true, in a higher sense, that there is no life in them? Twentieth century Lamechs are not so very rare.
III. An instance of cultured and civilised ungodliness.Lamech argues, that if God avenged Cain sevenfold (Gen 4:15) he, with his new weapon, the sword, will not need, nor ask a Divine avenger. He will act for himself on the principle, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and that not merely sevenfold but seventy and seven times. His vengeance will be more dire than that of God Himself. The song thus breathes a spirit of boastful defiance, of trust in his own strength, of violence, and of murder. Of God there is no further acknowledgment than that in a reference to the avenging of Cain, from which Lamech argues his own safety. Looked at in the light of this savage sword-song, we cannot but see that the culture and civilisation introduced by Lamech and his family were essentially godless; of the earth, earthy. These fathers of mankind were not rude barbarians, but cultured to a degree which it is too often the custom to underrate. And yet these were godless times. The wickedness of man was great in the earth. God was ignored. He was not in all the thoughts of these old-world denizens. Morally and spiritually the race was degenerating with fearful rapidity, until, the climax of wickedness having been reached, the Flood came and swept them all away. Are there none who, in the midst of the civilisation, culture, and luxury of the twentieth century are living merely sensuous lives, ignoring or forgetting God? Is not this pre-eminently a materialistic age? The creature is by many worshipped more than the Creator. Satisfaction is sought in art, science, literature, politics. Communion with God, the grace of Christ, the sure hope of heaven, are to many idle tales. Multitudes, without being profligate or abandoned, are yet without God in the most literal sense of the term. Do not many try to find in pleasure, money-making, social position, political power, scientific attainments, what Lamech found in his sons glittering bladea solace and a defence? His song also bears witness to the fierceness of his passions as well as to his powers of intellect, which went down to his family. In him the race of Cain disappears. His words are the song of the dying swan. The sinful, but clever family, founders amid its own corruptions. Crime haunted it from Cain to Lamech. The former broke from his kindred, and the latter broke through a law which is the only guarantee of a happy family lifethe law which allows to a man one wife to be his equal associate, his partner and helper in all things.
Illustration
The seventh generation after godless Cain produced the fiery-tempered, voluptuous, self-pleasing, poetical, ingenious Lamech: the seventh after pious Seth was headed by Enoch, who walked with God, and was not, for God took him. The contrast is striking.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Sin Grows Worse Cain went to live in the land of Nod with his wife. Many have wondered where he found a wife. While the text does not tell us specifically, we do know Adam named the woman Eve because she is the mother of all living ( Gen 3:20 ).
Lamech, a descendant of Cain, is the first polygamist and the second recorded murderer (4:19-24). There can be little doubt that sin has grown worse. Lamech sinned and then boasted about his evil works. He even boasted of the greater punishment he deserved for them.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Gen 4:19. Lamech took two wives It was one of the degenerate race of Cain who first transgressed the original law of marriage, that two only should be one flesh, and introduced a custom which still subsists in many parts of the world. Christ fully laid open the iniquity of this practice, and restored marriage to its first form, Mat 19:8.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:19 And Lamech took unto him {q} two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
(q) The lawful institution of marriage, which is, that two should be one flesh, was first corrupted in the house of Cain by Lamech.