And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
17. his wife ] On the question, Who was Cain’s wife? see note at the beginning of the chapter. If the narrative be homogeneous, she must have been either a daughter of Eve, or of a family of whose contemporaneous origin and existence this narrative in Genesis gives no account. But the compilation of our primitive story from different sources necessarily leaves many questions unanswered. No attempt is made to remove this and similar obvious inconsistencies.
Enoch ] Heb. nkh = “dedication”: the same name occurs in Gen 4:18; see note. It is also the name of a Midianite clan, Gen 25:4 ; 1Ch 1:33; and of a Reubenite clan, Gen 46:9; Exo 6:14.
builded a city ] It seems strange that we should have the mention of a city at a time when the inhabitants of the world were so few. But the purpose of this section is evidently to trace back to the Cainites, in the antediluvian period, the origin of early institutions. To the Hebrew the “city,” that is to say, a town community, represented the nucleus of civilized life, and hence the building of a city is ascribed to the father of the line from which emanated the various callings of civilization. It is needless to say that this tradition is devoid of scientific value for any enquiry into the progress of civilization in prehistoric times. Its interest lies in the record of the belief, that urban life could be dated back into the most primitive age. The site of the city is not indicated.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
17 24. The Descendants of Cain: The Genealogy of the Cainites. (J.)
See the Special Note on “the Antediluvian Patriarchs,” see below. The traditions preserved in this section probably belong to a different J source from that of the verses immediately preceding. This will explain how it is that Cain, who has just been condemned to a nomad life and has withdrawn into the land of “Wandering” (Nod), is in Gen 4:17 described as the founder of a city, and as the ancestor of men who originated the industries and callings of civilization.
NOTE ON THE ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS
According to chap. 5 (P), the interval of time between the work of Creation (Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:4 a) and the visitation of the Flood (Gen 6:9 ff.) is occupied by a list of ten Patriarchs.
The chronological scheme of P, according to the Hebrew text, makes this period to consist of 1656 years (in the Samaritan text, it is 1307 years; in the LXX, 2242). The description given of the ten Patriarchs is precise and formal. It is limited in each case to the bare formulae narrating facts respecting (i) the age of the Patriarch at the birth of his firstborn, (ii) the number of his remaining years, and the fact that he was the father of other children, (iii) his age at the time of his death.
The account which is thus given furnishes an explanation of the great population of the earth which is overthrown in the Flood. The chapter, however, contains no mention of the growing wickedness of the race. And it does not appear that P takes any account of the Narrative of the Fall (chap. 3 J). Budde, indeed ( Urgesch. 93 103), contends that the names of the Patriarchs are intended to symbolize the condition of their age, the names Jared (= descent), Methuselah (= the man of the weapon, or the man of violence) denoting its deterioration.
The ten names represented the history of the human race before the Flood. The distribution of these ten names over the period of 1656 years implies a minute and elaborate calculation by the chronologists and chroniclers, whose work has been employed in P.
I. Ten Babylonian Kings
It is impossible to resist the conclusion that there is some sort of connexion between the ten Antediluvian Patriarchs of Genesis 5 and the ten kings before the Flood in the Babylonian Legends. The names of the ten kings are as follows:
(A. According to Berossus.) (B. According to cuneiform inscriptions.) 1. Alrus. 1. Arru. 2. Alaparos. 2. Adapa. 3. Amln. 3. Amlu (= Man, ? = Enosh). 4. Ammenn. 4. Ummanu (= Master-crafts-man, ? = Kenan). 5. Megalros.
6. Danos.
7. Euedrachos.
8. Amempsinos. 7. Enmeduranki (?=Enoch).
8. Amel-Sin (= Man of the god Sin, ? = Methuselah). 9. tiartes. 9. Ubara-Jutu. 10 . Xisthros. 10. asisatra (?=Noah). In this list there may possibly be discerned some points of correspondence with the Hebrew. ( a) In No. 3 Amelu (= Man) may be translated in Enosh=Man. ( b) In (4) Ummanu (= Workman), in Kenan; and in (8) Amel-Sin (Man of Sin), in Methuselah (= Man of Shelah). ( c) No. 7, Enmeduranki (king of Sippar, the city of the Sun-god, Shamash), who was the friend of the gods Ramman and Shamash, looks as if he must stand in some close relation to Enoch, whose life was 365 years and who walked with God. ( d) The 10th in the list, Xisuthros or asisatra, the Ut-napishtim of the Epic, is the hero of the Babylonian Flood, and corresponds to Noah in the Hebrew list.
In the Babylonian list, the ten kings are assigned a period of 432,000 years.
II. Sethite and Cainite Genealogies
It is important to compare the two lists of the Sethite (P) and Cainite (J) Genealogies.
Sethite (chap. 5). Cainite (chap. Gen 4:17-24). 1. Adam 1. Adam 2. Seth 3. Enosh 4. Kenan 2. Cain 5. Mahalalel 3. Mehujael 6. Jared 4. Irad 7. Enoch 5. Enoch 8. Methuselah 6. Methushael 9. Lamech 7. Lamech 10. Noah | Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain. | Shem, Ham, Japheth. ( a) The general resemblance in the names is very striking. ( b) One list contains the perfect number ten, the other the perfect number seven. ( c) Each list concludes in a family of three sons. We have to deal either with two variants of the same tradition; or with two distinct traditions, in which the same stock of primitive legendary names is found very closely repeated.
III. Different Chronologies
The Chronology of the Antediluvian Patriarchs varies in the three principal sources for the text, (1) the Massoretic (Hebrew), (2) the Samaritan, (3) the Septuagint. They are presented in the following Table.
Massoretic Text Samaritan LXX Year ( Anno Mundi) of Death Firstborn Remainder Total Firstborn Remainder Total Firstborn Remainder Total Mass. Text Samaritan LXX 1. Adam 130 800 930 130 800 930 230 700 930 930 930 930 2. Seth 105 807 912 105 807 912 205 707 912 1042 1042 1141 3. Enosh 90 815 905 90 815 905 190 715 905 1140 1140 1342 4. Kenan 70 840 910 70 840 910 170 740 910 1235 1235 1534 5. Mahalalel 65 830 895 65 830 895 165 730 895 1290 1290 1696 6. Jered 162 800 962 62 785 847 62 785 847 1422 1307 1923 7. Enoch 65 300 365 65 300 365 165 200 365 987 887 1484 8. Methuselah 187 782 969 67 653 720 167* 802* 969 1656 1307 2256 9. Lamech 182 595 777 53 600 653 188 565 753 1651 1307 2204 10. Noah 500 500 500 Till the Flood 100 100 100 Year of the Flood 1656 1307 2242 These different figures are not due to errors in the text. They seem to arise from the adoption of differing systems for the calculation of the chronology.
It has commonly been supposed that the Hebrew figures (1656) are part of a scheme which calculated 2666 years to have been the interval between the Creation and the Exodus, and that 2666 years represented two-thirds of a cycle of 4000 years.
The 2666 years are computed as follows:
1656 Creation to Flood 290 Flood to birth of Abraham 100 To birth of Isaac (Gen 21:5) 60 To birth of Jacob (Gen 25:26) 130 To Jacob’s descent into Egypt (Gen 47:9-28) 430 Sojourn in Egypt (Exo 12:40) 2666 The Samaritan figure of 1307 is part of a system which calculated 3007 years to intervene between the Creation and the entrance into Canaan. The calculation was as follows:
Creation to Flood = 1307 years Flood to birth of Abraham = 940 years Birth of Abraham to descent into Egypt = 290 years Sojourn in Egypt = 430 years Wandering in Wilderness = 40 years 3007 years Skinner ( in loc.) points out, that, if the calculation be made in round numbers=3000, the entire period may then be divided into three decreasing periods of 1300, 940, 760 years, of which the second exceeds the third by 180 years, and the first exceeds the second by twice 180 years (2×180) = 360 years.
The LXX figure of 2240 is the equivalent of the Samaritan calculation from the Creation to the Flood (1300 years) + the Samaritan calculation from the Flood to the birth of Abraham (940 years). But whether this be the result of accident or design, it is impossible to say.
IV. Longevity of Patriarchs
The Hebrew tradition evidently assumed that human vitality, in the era immediately following upon the Creation, was at its highest point, and that, in consequence, immense longevity was to be expected in the lives of the Antediluvian Patriarchs.
The immense duration of life assigned to these ten Patriarchs has always been the occasion of difficulty. Attempts have been made to explain away the figures. ( a) It has been suggested that the names of the Patriarchs represent dynasties. But the mention of the first-born and of other children obviously refers to personal history. Nor does the transference of these enormous figures to the duration of dynasties greatly diminish the improbability of their literal historicity. ( b) It has been suggested that the Hebrew word for “year” ( shnah) is used in this chapter to denote a shorter period of time. But this arbitrary solution is devoid of any evidence in its favour. Familiar Hebrew words, like “years” in this chapter, or like “day” in chapter 1, must not be supposed, because of our difficulties in interpretation, to require new meanings.
There is no reason not to interpret the statements respecting the longevity of the ten Antediluvian Patriarchs quite literally. The account of them belongs to the domain of primitive tradition. It would be strange, if the primitive unverifiable tradition were not accompanied by the exaggerations which popular legend weaves around prehistoric names.
It is instructive to compare the ages of the Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Patriarchs with those of the famous Israelites of more historic times.
Adam, the first of the Antediluvians, lived 930 years Seth, the second of the Antediluvians, lived 912 years Noah, the tenth of the Antediluvians, lived 950 years Shem, the first of the Post-diluvians, lived 600 years Arpachshad, the second of the Post-diluvians, lived 408 years Terah, the tenth of the Post-diluvians, lived 205 years Abraham lived 175 years Isaac lived 180 years Jacob lived 147 years Joseph lived 110 years Moses lived 120 years Joshua lived 110 years David reigned 40 years Solomon reigned 40 years Rehoboam lived 58 years (2Ch 12:13) Hezekiah lived 54 years (2Ch 29:1) Manasseh lived 67 years (2Ch 33:1) It is clear that this descending scale, in the duration of life, corresponds to the stages of transition from legend to history.
There is no evidence to shew that the earlier phases of civilization were more favourable to longevity than the later.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– XIX. The Line of Cain
17. chenok, Chanok, initiation, instruction.
18. yrad, Irad, fleet as the wild ass, citizen. mechuya’el, Mechujael, smitten of El, or life of El. metusha’el, Methushael, man of El, or man asked. lamek, Lemek, man of prayer, youth.
19. ‘adah, Adah, beauty. tslah, Tsillah, shade or tinkling.
20. yabal, Jabal, stream, leader of cattle, produce, the walker or wanderer. ‘ohel plural: ‘ohalym for ‘ahalym tent, awning, covering of goats hair over the poles or timbers which constituted the original booth, sukah.
21. yubal, Jubal, player on an instrument?
22. tubal–qayn, Tubal-qain, brass-smith? The scion or son of the lance. < naamah, Naamah, pleasant, lovely.
Mankind is now formally divided into two branches – those who still abide in the presence of God, and those who have fled to a distance from him. Distinguishing names will soon be given to these according to their outward profession and practice Gen 6:1. The awful distinction according to the inward state of the feelings has been already given in the terms, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
Gen 4:17
Cain is not unaccompanied in his banishment. A wife, at least, is the partner of his exile. And soon a son is born to him. He was building a city at the time of this birth. The city is a keep or fort, enclosed with a wall for the defense of all who dwell within. The building of the city is the erection of this wall or barricade. Here we find the motive of fear and self-defense still ruling Cain. His hand has been imbrued in a brothers blood, and he expects every mans hand will be against him.
He calls his son Henok (Enoch), and his city after the name of his son. The same word is employed as a name in the lines of Seth Gen 5:18, of Midian Gen 25:4, and of Reuben Gen 46:9. It signifies dedication or initiation, and, in the present case, seems to indicate a new beginning of social existence, or a consciousness of initiative or inventive power, which necessity and self-reliance called forth particularly in himself and his family. It appears, from the flocks kept by Habel, the fear of persons meeting and slaying the murderer, the marriage and family of Cain, and the beginning of a city, that a considerble time had elapsed since the fall. The wife of Cain was of necessity his sister, though this was forbidden in after times, for wise and holy reasons, when the necessity no longer existed.
Gen 4:18
The names in this verse seem to denote, respectively, fleet as a wild ass, stricken by God, man of prayer, and youth. They indicate a mingling of thoughts and motives in mens minds, in which the word ‘el mighty as a name of God occurs. This name is a common noun, signifying hero or potentate, and also power or might, and is transferred to God as the Potentate, or Almighty One. It is distinguished from ‘elohym God, since they are put in apposition Jos 22:22; and seems to be properly an epithet applied to God by way of pre-eminence. The denomination, stricken of the Mighty, is a recognition of the divine power. The man of prayer, or asking, may also have reference to an act of worship. Among these higher thoughts we also find a value put upon youth and physical superiority, as the fleetness of the wild ass. This is all we can learn from these imperfectly understood names.
Gen 4:19
This is the first record and probably the first instance of polygamy. The names of the two wives, Adah, beauty, and Zillah, shade or tinkling, seem to refer to the charms which attracted Lamek. Superabundance of wealth and power perhaps led Lamek to multiply wives.
Gen 4:20 is the first notice of the tent and of cattle. The tent was the thin shining and shading canvas of goats hair, which was placed over the poles or timbers that constituted the original booth. In process of time it would supplant the branches and foliage of the booth as a covering from the sun or the wind. The cattle are designated by a word denoting property, as being chattels personal, and consisting chiefly of sheep and oxen. The idea of property had now been practically realized. The Cainites were now prosperous and numerous, and therefore released from that suspicious fear which originated the fortified keep of their progenitor. The sons of Jabal rove over the common with their tents and cattle, undismayed by imaginary terrors.
Gen 4:21
Here is the invention of musical instruments in their two leading varieties, the harp and the pipe. This implies the previous taste for music and song. It seems not unlikely that Zillah, the mother of Jubal, was a daughter of song. The fine arts follow in the train of the useful. All this indicates the easy circumstances in which the Cainites now found themselves.
Gen 4:22
The three names Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal are formed from root signifying to flow, run, go forth, perhaps blow, from which comes yobel the blast or trumpet-note of joy and release. Accordingly, all sorts of going forth, that were suitable to the life of a nomad, seem to have distinguished this family. The addition of Cain to the name of Tubal may have been a memorial of his ancestor, or an indication of his pursuit. Tubal of the spear or lance may have been his familiar designation. The making of tents implies some skill in carpentry, and also in spinning and weaving. The working in brass and iron furnishes implements for war, hunting, or husbandry. The construction of musical instruments shows considerable refinement in carving and moulding wood. Naamah, the lovely, seems to be mentioned on account of her personal charms.
Gen 4:23-24
In this fragment of ancient song, we have Lamek, under the strong excitement of having slain a man in self-defense, reciting to his wives the deed, and at the same time comforting them and himself with the assurance that if Cain the murderer would be avenegd sevenfold, he the manslayer in self-defense would be avenged seventy and seven-fold. This short ode has all the characteristics of the most perfect Hebrew poetry. Every pair of lines is a specimen of the Hebrew parallelism or rhythm of sentiment and style. They all belong to the synthetic, synonymous, or cognate parallel, the second member reiterating with emphasis the first. Here we observe that Lamek was a poet; one of his wives was probably a songstress, and the other had a taste for ornament. One daughter was the lovely, and three sons were the inventors of most of the arts which sustain and embellish life. This completes the picture of this remarkable family.
It has been noticed that the inventive powers were more largely developed in the line of Cain than in that of Sheth. And it has been suggested that the worldly character of the Cainites accounts for this. The Shethites contemplated the higher things of God, and therefore paid less attention to the practical arts of life. The Cainites, on the other hand, had not God in their thoughts, and therefore gave the more heed to the requisites and comforts of the present life.
But besides this the Cainites, penetrating into the unknown tracts of this vast common, were compelled by circumstances to turn their thoughts to the invention of the arts by which the hardships of their condition might be abated. And as soon as they had conquered the chief difficulties of their new situation, the habits of industry and mental activity which they had acquired were turned to the embellishments of life.
We have no grounds, however, for concluding that the descendants of Cain were as yet entirely and exclusively ungodly on the one hand, or on the other that the descendants of Sheth were altogether destitute of inventive genius or inattentive to its cultivation. With the exception of the assault that seemed to have provoked the homicidal act of Lamek, and the bigamy of Lamek himself, we find not much to condemn in the recorded conduct of the race of Cain; and in the names of some of them we discover the remembrance and recognition of God. Habel had a keeper of cattle before Jabal. The Cainites were also an older race than the Shethites. And when Noah was commissioned to build the ark, we have no reason to doubt that he was qualified in some measure by natural ability and previous training for such a task.
The line of Cain is traced no further than the seventh generation from Adam. We cannot tell whether there were any more in that line before the flood. The design of tracing it thus far, is to point out the origin of the arts of life, and the first instances of bigamy and homicide in self-defense.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 4:17-24
Built a city
The first city
It was a very decided step towards civilization, when the idea of building a city was first conceived and realized.
The roaming life of the homeless savage was abandoned; social ties were formed; families joined families, and exchanged in friendly intercourse their experience and observations; communities arose, and submitted to the rule of self-imposed laws; the individuals resigned the unchecked liberty of the beasts of the forest, and felt the delight of being subservient links in the universal chain. Social and personal excellence depend on and strengthen each other. Therefore, when the first communities were organized, the way to a steady and continuous progress was paved, and the first beams of dawning humanity trembled over the night of barbarism and ferocity. It is a deep trait in the Biblical account to ascribe the origin of cities to none but the agriculturist. Unlike the nomad, who changes his temporary tents whenever the state of the pasture requires it, the husbandman is bound to the glebe which he cultivates; the soil to which he devotes his strength and his anxieties becomes dear to him; that part of the earth to which he owes his sustenance assumes a character of holiness in his eyes; and if, besides, pledges of conjugal love have grown up in that spot, he is more strongly still tied to it; he fixes there his permanent abode, and considers its loss a curse of God. Thus, even in the land of flight, the agriculturist Cain was compelled to build houses and to form a city. Many inventions of mechanical skill are inseparable from the building of towns; ingenuity was aroused and exercised; and whilst engaged in satisfying the moral desire of sociability, man brought many of his intellectual powers into efficient operation. Necessity suggested, and perseverance executed, inventions which safety or comfort required; and when man left the caverns which nature had beneficently provided for his dwelling place, to inhabit the houses which his own hands had built, he entered them with that legitimate pride which the consciousness of superior skill begets, and with the consoling conviction that, although God had doomed him, on account of his own and his ancestors sins, to a life full of fatigue and struggles, He had graciously furnished him with a spark of that heavenly fire which strengthens him to endure and to conquer. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
The generations of Cain
1. Nothing good is said of any one of them; but, heathen-like, they appear to have lost all fear of God and regard to man.
2. Two or three of them became famous for arts; one was a shepherd, another a musician, and another a smith; all very well in themselves, but things in which the worst of men may excel.
3. One of them was infamous for his wickedness, namely Lamech. He was the first who violated the law of marriage; a man giving loose to his appetites, and who lived a kind of lawless life. Here ends the account of cursed Cain. We hear no more of his posterity, unless it be as tempters to the sons of God, till they were all swept away by the deluge! (A. Fuller.)
Lessons
In Cains building a city, and calling it after his sons name, we see the care of the wicked, ever more to desire to magnify themselves than to glorify God, more to seek after a name in earth than a life in heaven, more to establish their seed with towns and towers than with Gods favour. But such course is crooked and like Cains here. If we desire a name, the love of God and His word, the love of Christ and His truth is the way. You remember a silly woman that, in a true affection to her Lord and Master, poured upon Him a box of ointment, and what got she: Verily, saith Christ, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the world, this shall be told of the woman for a remembrance of her. Here was a name well gotten, and firmly continued to the very worlds end. The memory of the righteous shall remain forever, and the name of the wicked, do what they can, in Gods good time shall rot and take an ending. For which cause Moses, if you mark it, maketh no mention of the time that either Cain or any of his sons lived, as he doth of the godly. Filthy polygamy, you see, in this place began with wicked Lamech, that is, to have more wives than one at a time: so old is this evil, that from the beginning was not so. That mention that is made of the children here of the wicked, telleth us how they flourish for a time with all worldly things whom yet God hateth. The last words show you what eclipses true religion suffereth often in this world, and let us mark it. (Bp. Babington.)
The race of Cain
I. IT IS SINGULAR HOW MENTAL EFFORT AND INVENTION SEEK CHIEFLY CONFINED TO THY RACE OF CAIN. Feeling themselves estranged from God, they are stung to derive whatever solace they can from natural research, artistic skill, and poetic illusion. It is melancholy to think that so many of the arts appeared in conjunction with some shape or other of evil. The music of Jubal in all probability first sounded in the praise of some idol god, or perhaps mingled with some infernal sacrifice. The art of metallurgy and its cognate branches became instantly the instruments of human ferocity and the desire of shedding blood. Even poetry first appeared on the stage linked with the immoral and degrading practice of polygamy. Gifts without graces are but lamps enabling individuals and nations to see their way down more clearly to the chambers of death.
II. THERE ARE CERTAIN STRIKING ANALOGIES BETWEEN OUR OWN AGE AND THE AGE BEFORE THE FLOOD. Both are ages of–
1. Ingenuity.
2. Violence.
3. Great corruption and sensuality.
4. Distinguished by the striving of the Spirit of God. (G. Gilfillan.)
Cains descendants
The natural man is fertile in all things pertaining to this present evil world; and Satan, the god of this world, sharpens and quickens his ingenuity and skill.
1. Pastoral pursuits make progress. Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle (Gen 4:20). Jabal takes the lead as the great shepherd of his day–gentler, perhaps, and more peaceful in his nature–morn like Abel in his disposition. The Spirit of God does not here cast censure on such employments, as if there were sin in them. He simply points out these children of Cain as sitting down contented with earth, and engrossed with its pursuits. These children of Cain seem to have shrunk from tillage. The soil was too full of terror, as well as of toil, for them to attempt its tillage. How a mans sin finds him out! How it traces him out wherever he sets his foot!
2. The fine arts. Jabal had a brother by name Jabal, who betakes himself to the harp and the organ. Yes–music–the world must soothe its sorrows or drown its cares with music! The world must cheat its hours away with music! The world must set its lusts to music (Job 21:12). Yet, sweet sounds are not unholy. There is no sin in the richest strains of music. And God, by bringing into His own temple all the varied instruments of melody, and employing them in His praises, showed this. But these Cainites make music of the siren kind. God is not in all their melodies. It is to shut Him out that they devise the harp and the organ. Yet these inventions He makes use of for Himself afterwards; employing these men as the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for His temple.
3. The mechanical arts. Zillah bare Tubal-Cain to Lamech: and this Tubal-Cain was an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. The arts flourish under Cains posterity. They can prosper without God, and among those in whose hearts His fear is not. God suffers them to go on forgetting Himself, and occupying themselves with these engrossing employments. He does not interfere; and this not only because He is long suffering, but because one of His great purposes is, that man shall have full scope to develop himself mentally, morally, and physically. Man has torn himself off from God; and God will let it be seen how the branch can unfold its leaves and fruit, or rather what kind of leaves and fruit it can put forth when thus severed from Himself. God will let the world roll on its own way, that it may be seen what a world it is. What is earth without the God that made it, or the Christ by whom it is yet to be made new? What are the arts and sciences; music, painting, statuary? What are the wisdom, skill, energy, power, genius of the race, developed to the full? What are the minds resources, the hearts fulness, the bodys pliant power, mans strength or womans beauty, youths fervour or ages grey-haired wisdom? What are all these in a world from which its Creator has been banished; a world whose wisdom is not the knowledge of Christ, and whose sunshine is not the love of God? (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The first city and the last
In the Book of Genesis we have the first city built by Cain, in the Book of the Revelation the last city built by Christ. Now, what I specially wish to show is how the spirit of Christ will purify and exalt city life, how it will arrest the evil of the multitude within the city walls, how it will develop the good, and bring the corporate life to a glorious perfection. It was said of Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble; but Christ shall work a far grander transformation, for, finding the cities of the earth cities of Cain, He shall change them into new Jerusalems, holy cities, cities of God. We must not look for the city that John saw in some future world strange and distant; we must look for it in the purification of the present order, that city is already coming down from God out of heaven, it is even now purging and beautifying the cities of the earth, and it will never cease coming down until the corrupt cities of the nations are built up in the crystal and gold of truth and justice and peace. The city of Cain is the city of the past; it is also, alas! to a large extent the city of the present. It is impossible to think of London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, New York, without being deeply impressed by the spectacles they present of human genius and power and splendid aspiration. And yet in these very cities how much there is to give us pain! How much there is of ignorance, poverty, crime, suffering–of low life, sad life, shameful life. Now, what makes a great city a sad sight, what is the cause of its terrible and perplexing contrasts, and how will Christ cure these evils and bring the clean thing out of the unclean? Let us see.
1. The spirit of Cain was the spirit of ungodliness. It was the spirit of worldliness, it was the fastening to the earthly side of things and the leaving out of the spiritual and divine; it made material life a substitute for God, and in all things aimed to make man independent of God. It was government without God. Cain builded a city–he laid the foundation of the worldly rule, and laid it in the spirit of pride and independence. It was culture without God. It was wealth and power without God. It was fashion and pleasure without God. The names of their women signify their appreciation of personal beauty and adornment. The spirit of Cain was, throughout, the spirit of ungodliness, the acceptance and development of all the gifts of God yet ignoring the Giver, and in this spirit Cain built his city. The consciousness of God is the salt of our personal life, and the consciousness of God is the salt of our social and national life. National atheism, whether practical or theoretical, works national ruin. There is no adequate check then to our pride, our selfishness, our license. Without God, the more power we have the sooner we destroy ourselves; without God, the richer we are the sooner we rot. In opposition to this Christ brings into city life the element of spirituality. Coming down out of heaven from God. It is in the recognition of the living God that Christ creates the fairer civilization. He puts into our heart assurance of Gods existence, government, watchfulness, equity, faithfulness. It is comparatively easy to see God in nature, in the landscape, the sky, the sea, the sun, but Christ has brought God into the city, identified Him with human life and interests and duties and joys and sorrows, and just as we accept and enforce the divine element in city life so shall our cities flourish in strength and happiness. We cannot do without God in the city–here where temptation is most bitter, pleasure most enticing, sorrow most tragical, where material is most abundant, opportunity most common, secrecy most practicable, passion most excited, where character suffers most fiery trial, here can be no good thing except as we are kept in awe of Gods majesty, comforted by His sympathy, strengthened by His government, inspired by His love. We cannot build cities without God, and if we do they fall to pieces again.
2. The spirit of Cain was the spirit of unbrotherliness. Cain slew his brother. It was Cain who asked, Am I my brothers keeper? He specially denied the brotherly relation, he specially affirmed the selfish policy. And in Lamech you see how the hateful spirit has prevailed. The first city was built in the spirit of a cruel egotism, built by a fratricide, and Cains red finger marks are on the city still. The blood stains of the old builder are everywhere. The rich things of commerce are stained by extortion and selfishness–the bloody finger marks are not always immediately visible; but they are generally there. There are red fingerprints on the palaces of the great, red stains on the gold of the opulent. Look at the gorgeous raiment of fashion, and the dismal blot is there. Go into the flowery paths of pleasure, and you will see selfishness spilling blood for its indulgence. And what is the outcome of this selfishness? It creates everywhere weakness and wretchedness and peril. It throws a strange black shadow on all the magnificence of civilization. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of brotherliness. Cain slew his brother. Christ died for us. Christ brings a new spirit and a new law into society; we must love one another. There are red marks once more on the new city, but this time they are the Builders own blood teaching us that as He laid down His life for us so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Oh! what a mighty difference will the working of this spirit make in all our civilization. Can you measure it? How it will inspire men, soften their antagonisms, lighten their burdens, wipe away their tears, make rough places smooth, dark places bright, crooked places plain.
3. The spirit of Cain was the spirit of unrighteousness. Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous. Cain acted in untruthfulness, injustice, violence. And in that spirit he built his city. He was of that wicked one. The devil was the architect of the first city and Cain its builder, and the spirit of faction, lying, robbery, and fratricide has prevailed in the city ever since. Our great populations are full of wretchedness because there is everywhere such lack of truth and equity and mercy. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of righteousness. Christ comes not only with the sweetness of love, but with the majesty of truth and justice. He creates, wherever He is received, purity of heart, conscientiousness, faithfulness, uprightness of spirit and action. And in this spirit of righteousness shall we build the ideal city. Some time ago, in one of the Reviews, a writer gave a picture of the London of the future when all sanitary and political improvements shall have been perfected. No dust in the streets, no smoke in the air, no noise, no fog, spaces everywhere for flowers and sunlight, the sky above always pure, the Thames running below a tide of silver; but think of the city of the future in whose life, laws, institutions, trade, polities: pleasure, the righteousness of Christ shall find full and final manifestation Let us have great faith in the future. We say sometimes, God made the country and man the town, but God will make the town before He finishes, and the town that He makes shall outshine all the glory of nature as much as living immortal beings are beyond all material things. Let us be co-workers with Christ. Put your chrysolite in somewhere. In our personal life, in our domestic life, in our public life, in our evangelistic life let us put in some real work. We are poor creatures if we have no part in this. We must have a brick in this time. Let us be true to the grand Master Builder, and when the earth in her beauty is taken to the breast of God we shall sit down at the bridal feast and share the immortal joy. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The city of Cain
Cain is a type of the worldling, cut off from God, whose all is in this life, and who has no hope of heaven.
I. His thought is of living here always. A city is a settled place of residence meant to endure long.
II. His ambition and pride. Great pomp and state in cities.
III. His covetousness. Money made and hoarded in cities.
IV. His luxuriousness. Cities are scenes of luxury and vice. There is Satans seat. (T. G. Horton.)
Cains life
It is not difficult to detect the spirit he carried with him, and the tone he gave to his line of the race. The facts recorded are few but significant. He begat a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the name Enoch, that is, initiation, or beginning, as if he were saying in his heart, What so great harm after all in cutting short one line in Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the race. I am driven forth cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I will not be; I will make for myself a settled abode, and I will fence it round with knife blade thorns so that no man will be able to assault me. In this settling of Cain, however, we see not any symptom of his ceasing to be a vagabond, but the surest evidence that now he was content to be a fugitive from God, and had cut himself off from hope. His heart had found rest, and had found it apart from God. It is in the family of Lamech the characteristics of Cains line are most distinctly seen, and the significance of their tendencies becomes apparent. As Cain had set himself to cultivate the curse out of the world, so have his children derived from him the self-reliant hardiness and hardihood which are resolute to make of this world as bright and happy a home as may be. They make it their task to subdue the world and compel it to yield them a life in which they can delight. They are so far successful that in a few generations they have formed a home in which all the essentials of civilized life are found–the arts are cultivated and female society is appreciated. Of his three sons, Jabal–or Increase –was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattle. He had originality enough to step beyond all traditional habits and to invent a new mode of life. Hitherto men had been tied to one spot by their fixed habitations, or found shelter, when overtaken by storm, in caves or trees. To Jabal the idea first occurs, I can carry my house about with me and regulate its movements, and not it mine. I need not return every night this long, weary way from the pastures, but may go wherever grass is green and streams run cool. He and his comrades would thus become aware of the vast resources of other lands, and would unconsciously lay the foundations both of commerce and of wars of conquest. For both in ancient and more modern times the most formidable armies have been those vast moving shepherd races bred outside the borders of civilization and flooding as with an irresistible tide the territories of more settled and less hardy tribes. Jubal again was, as his name denotes, the reputed father of all such as handle the harp and the organ, stringed and wind instruments. The stops of the reed or flute and the divisions of the string being once discovered, all else necessarily followed. The twanging of a bowstring in a musical ear was enough to give the suggestion to an observant mind; the varying notes of the birds; the winds expressing at one time unbridled fury and at another a breathing benediction, could not fail to move and stir the susceptible spirit. The spontaneous though untuned singing of children, that follows no mere melody made by another to express his joy, but is the instinctive expression of their own joy, could not but give, however meagrely, the first rudiments of music. But here was the man who first made a piece of wood help him; who out of the commonest material of the physical world found for himself a means of expressing the most impalpable moods of his spirit. Once the idea was caught that matter inanimate as well as animate was mans servant, and could do his finest work for him, Jabal and his brother Jubal would make rapid work between them. If the rude matter of the world could sing for them, what might it not do for them? They would see that there was a precision in machine work which mans hand could not rival–a regularity which no nervous throb could throw out and no feeling interrupt, and yet at the same time when they found how these rude instruments responded to every finest shade of feeling, and how all external nature seemed able to express what was in man, must it not have been the birth of poetry as well as of music? Jubal, in short, originates what we now compendiously describe as the fine arts. The third brother, again, may be taken as the originator of the useful arts–though not exclusively–for being the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, having something of his brothers genius for invention and more than his brothers handiness and practical faculty for embodying his ideas in material forms, he must have promoted all arts which require tools for their culture. Thus among these three brothers we find distributed the various kinds of genius and faculty which ever since have enriched the world. Here in germ was really all that the world can do. The great lines in which individual and social activity have since run were then laid down. This notable family circle was completed by Naamah, the sister of Tubal-Cain. The strength of female influence began to be felt contemporaneously with the cultivation of the arts. Very early in the worlds history it was perceived that, although debarred from the rougher activities of life, women have an empire of their own. Men have the making of civilization, but women have the making of men. It is they who form the character of the individual and give its tone to the society in which they live. (M. Dods, D. D.)
The cultivation of the fine arts
The inexorable necessaries of daily life absorbed no more the whole attention or the entire strength; the soul and the heart, also, demanded and obtained their food and nurture! Lamech was the first poet (Gen 4:23-24), and his son the first musician; the sweat of the brow was temporarily dried by the heavenly sunshine of art; the curse of Adam was, in a great measure, conquered by the perseverance and the gentleness of his descendants. Everybody will readily admit that this was a most important step in the advancement of society; for, materialism with its degrading tendencies of cold expediency was, in some measure, dethroned; it became a co-ordinate part of a higher striving, which found its reward, not in selfish utility, but in a free and elevating recreation. It is true that most of the ancient nations ascribed the invention of musical instruments to their deities: the Egyptians believed that Thor, the god of wisdom and knowledge, the friend of Osiris, invented the three-stringed lyre; the Greeks represented Pan or Mercury as the first artists on the flute; and music was generally considered a Divine gift, and an immediate communication from the gods. But our context describes the invention of these instruments in a far deeper manner; it embodies it organically in the history of the human families, and assigns to it that significant place which its internal character demands. It is not an accidental fact that the lyre and the flute were introduced by the brother of a nomadic herdsman (Jabal). It is in the happy leisure of this occupation that music is generally first exercised and appreciated, and the idyllic tunes of the shepherd find their way, either with his simple instruments, or after the invention of others of a more developed description, into the house of the citizen and the palace of the monarch. But we must not be surprised to find here Jabal described as the father of those who dwell in tents, and of those who have cattle (Gen 4:20), although Abel had already followed the same pursuits (Gen 4:2). Every single remark proves the depth of thought, and the comprehensiveness of the views of the Hebrew writer. Abel had been murdered, most probably without leaving children; yet his occupation could not die out with him; breeding of cattle is a calling too necessary, and at the same time too inviting, not to be resumed by some later born individual. But in the family of Cain rested the curse of bloodshed; the crime was to be expiated by severe labour; in the fourth generation it was atoned for (Exo 20:5); and now were the Cainites permitted to indulge extensively in the easy life of herdsmen; the blood of Abel was avenged, and with the restored guiltlessness returned affluence, and–mirth, which is aptly symbolized by the invention of music. Jabal and Jubal were Lamechs sons with Adah; but he had another wife, Zillah, who bore him also a son, Tubal-Cain. He was a sharpener of all instruments of braes and iron; and this seems to imply that he continued the ancestral pursuit of agriculture, but that he also improved the necessary implements; he invented the practical art of whetting ploughs, and of making, by the aid of fire, other instruments materially mitigating the toil and hardship which the cultivation of the soil imposes upon the laborious countryman. And are we not justified in finding in this alleviation of the manual labour also, a relaxation of the severe curse pronounced against his ancestor Cain? (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt
The song of the sword
It may be translated thus:–
Adah and Zillah! hear my voice;
Ye wives of Lamech I give ear to my speech:
I will slay men for smiting me,
And for wounding me young men shall die.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Lamech seventy and seven.
This is the most antique song or poem in the world, the only poem which dates from before the Flood, the sole literary relic of the antediluvian race. Of course, it has been read in many different senses, and its meaning has at times been darkened by those who assumed to explain it. According to some, Lamech is a murderer stung by remorse into a public confession of his guilt. According to others, he, the polygamist, acknowledges that his sin will bear a more fruitful progeny of ills than that of Cain, that polygamy will prove more fatal to human peace than murder. But the interpretation which the ablest critics are rapidly adopting, and which I hold to be incomparably the best, is that which names it the Song of the Sword. Whatever else may be doubtful, this seems certain, that Lamech is in a vaunting humour as he sings: that he is boasting of an immunity from vengeance superior to that of Cain; and that, because of some special advantage which he possesses, he is encouraging himself to deeds of violence and resentment. Now, just before the song of Lamech we have the verse which narrates that Tubal-Cain had learned to hammer out edge-tools in brass and iron. Suppose this great smith to have invented a sword or a spear, to have shown his father how effective and mortal a weapon it was, would not that have been likely to put Lamech into the vainglorious mood which inspires his poem? May we not rationally conclude that his song is the Song of the Sword; that, as he wields this new product of Tubal-Cains anvil, Lamech feels that he has a new strength and defence put into his hand, a weapon which will make him even more secure than the mark of God made Cain? (S. Cox, D. D.)
The case of Lamech
I. THE CASE OF LAMECH SHOWS THE EFFECT OF AN ABANDONMENT OF THE CHURCHS FELLOWSHIP.
1. The end and use of ordinances.
2. These are enjoined only in the Church.
3. Cain and his posterity forsook the fellowship of the Church, and lost its privileges.
4. 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 SHOWS THAT OUTWARD PROSPERITY IS NO SURE MARK OF GODS FAVOUR.
1. We have seen Lamechs character.
2. He was remarkable for family prosperity (verses 20-22).
3. Gods dealings with His people have all a reference to their spiritual and eternal good.
4. Hence they have not uninterrupted prosperity.
5. To the ungodly, temporal good is cursed, and becomes a curse–increased responsibility, increased guilt.
6. Splendid masked misery–embroidered shroud–sculptured tomb.
7. The graces of poetry given here–speech of Lamech.
III. THE CASE OF LAMECH SHOWS THAT THE DEALINGS OF GOD ARE MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISINTERPRETED BY THE UNGODLY.
1. God protected Cain by a special providence, that His sentence might take effect.
2. Lamech argues from this, that he is under a similar special providence.
3. Common–they who despise Divine things still know as much of them as is convenient for their reasonings. Doctrines–depravity, election, justification by faith. Incidents–Noah, David, Peter, malefactor on the cross–All things work, etc. Because sentence against, etc. Ecc 8:11).
4. Satan thus uses something like the sword of the Spirit–infuses poison into the Word of Life.
5. The Scriptures are thus by men made to injure them fatally. They rest them to their own destruction–food in a weak stomach–a weed in a rich soil.
(1) See the effects of a departure from God.
(2) Avoid the first step. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Lamech
Without professing to regard him as either an antediluvian Thug–a patriarchal old man of the mountain–the true type of the assassin in every age, whose sacrificial knife is a dagger, whose worship is homicide, and his inspiration that apostate spirit who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning (Revelation J.B. Owen, M.A., Pre-Calvary Martyrs, p. 97); or, on the other band, the afflicted one, a type and prophecy, in the first ages of the world, of afflicted Israel in the hour of Jacobs trouble, when they shall look on the pierced Saviour with godly sorrow (Revelation T.R. Birks, M.A., in Family Treasury, February, 1863, p. 85); we see in him–
I. A VIOLATOR OF THE DIVINE LAW OF MARRIAGE. Lamech was a polygamist. Monogamy was the Divine law of marriage, and in all likelihood this rule had been observed till Lamechs time. Dr. Cox says, He is the first of the human race who had more wives than one. The father of a family of inventors, this was his invention, his legacy to the human race–a legacy which perhaps the larger half of men still inherit to their cost and ours (Sunday Magazine, 1873, p. 158)
. 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.
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 (Gen 4:20-22). But gifts and graces do not necessarily go together.
III. A CASE OF GODS DEALINGS BEING MISCONSTRUED AND PERVERTED. If Cain be avenged sevenfold. The mark set on Cain was not only a protection but a punishment. Whilst it saved him from death, it confined him to a vagabondage almost worse than death. Lamech, however, sees in it not punishment, but only protection. He interprets Cains case as a premium put by God upon violence; as a Divine connivance at murder. If God, he argues, took the part of a homicide, I need not scruple to destroy with my glittering blade any man, old or young, who dares to molest me. God is merciful to murderers. A true case of turning the grace of God into licentiousness, of sinning that grace may abound.
IV. AN INSTANCE OF CULTURED AND CIVILIZED GODLESSNESS. 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 seven fold but seventy-and-seven times. 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 (Edersheim). Looked at in the light of this savage sword song, we cannot but see that the culture and civilization introduced by Lamech and his family were essentially godless; of the earth, earthly. (T. D.Dickson, M. A.)
Lamech
1. As the first violator of Gods primeval law of marriage. That law most strictly enjoined one wife; and doubtless had been observed till Lamechs time. It was the foundation of family peace, of true religion, of social order, of right government in the state. Take away this foundation, or place two instead of one, and the whole fabric shakes, the nation crumbles to pieces.
2. As a murderer. Lust had led to adultery, and adultery had led to violence and murder.
3. As a boaster of his evil deeds. He does the deed of blood, and he is not ashamed of it; nay, he glories in it–nay, glories in it to his own wives. There is no confession of sin here, no repentance, not even Cains partial humbling. Thus iniquity lifts up its head and waxes bold in countenance, defying God and vaunting before men, as if the deed had been one of honour and not of shame (2Ti 3:2; Psa 52:7; Psa 10:3).
4. As one taking refuge in the crimes of others. He makes Cain not a warning, but an example.
5. As one perverting Gods forbearance. He trifles with sin, because God showed mercy to another. He tramples on righteousness, because it is tempered with grace. He sets vengeance at nought, because God is long suffering.
6. As a scoffer. He believes in no judgment, and makes light of sins recompense. Is not this the mocking that we hear on every side? No day of judgment, no righteous vengeance against sin, no condemnation of the transgressor! God has borne long with the world, He will bear longer with it still! He may do something to dry up the running sore of its miseries; but as for its guilt, He will make no account of that, for God is love! But what then becomes of law, or of righteousness, or of the difference between good and evil? And what becomes of Gods past proclamations of law, His manifestations of righteousness, His declarations of abhorrence of all sin? (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. She – bare Enoch] As Chanoch signifies instructed, dedicated, or initiated, and especially in sacred things, it may be considered some proof of Cain’s repentance, that he appears to have dedicated this son to God, who, in his father’s stead, might minister in the sacerdotal office, from which Cain, by his crime, was for ever excluded.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Cain knew his wife; of which phrase see Poole on “Gen 4:1“.
He built a city; partly to divert his troubled mind with business and pleasure, and partly for his own security against the enemies and evils which his guilty conscience made him fear, notwithstanding the assurance which God had given him. And this he did as soon as he was in capacity for it, either by the increase of his own posterity, or by the accession of other degenerate sons of Adam to him, who either being banished, or having departed from the church, willingly associated themselves with their brethren in iniquity.
After the name of his son, Enoch; not after his own name, which he knew to be infamous and hateful.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17-22. builded a cityIt hasbeen in cities that the human race has ever made the greatest socialprogress; and several of Cain’s descendants distinguished themselvesby their inventive genius in the arts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Cain knew his wife,…. Who this woman was is not certain, nor whether it was his first wife or not; whether his sister, or one that descended from Adam by another of his sons, since this was about the one hundred and thirtieth year of the creation. At first indeed Cain could marry no other than his sister; but whether he married Abel’s twin sister, or his own twin sister, is disputed; the Jews say g, that Cain’s twin sister was not a beautiful woman, and therefore he said, I will kill my brother and take his wife: on the other hand, the Arabic writers say h, that Adam would have had Cain married Abel’s twin sister, whom they call Awin; and Abel have married Cain’s twin sister, whom they call Azron; but Cain would not, because his own sister was the handsomest; and this they take to be the occasion of the quarrel, which issued in the murder of Abel.
And she conceived and bare Enoch; which signifies “trained up”, not in the true religion, and in the ways of God and godliness, as one of this name descending from Seth was, who is said to walk with God; but in the practices of his father Cain, and in a wicked course of life:
and he builded a city: for a settlement on earth, thinking of nothing but this world, and the things of it; or to secure himself from being slain by men; or it may be for his amusement, to divert his thoughts from the melancholy scene always presented to his mind, by being thus employed; and his posterity growing numerous, he took this method to keep them together, and that they might be able to defend themselves from the assaults of others. Some render the words, “he was building a city” i; as if he did not live to finish it; but it looks as if it was finished by him, by what follows:
and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch: not after his own name, which was odious and infamous, but after his son’s name, to show his affection to him, and that his name might be continued in ages to come; see Ps 49:11. This was the first city that was built, that we read of. Sir Walter Raleigh conjectures k that the Henochii or Heniochi of Pliny, Ptolemy, and other writers, took their name from this city of Henoch, or from the country where it stood, when it was repeopled after the flood, since these people were due east from the garden of Eden.
(For Cain to marry his sister or any other close relation was not harmful as it is today. There would be few if any genetic disorders at this time. However, as time past, the human race accumulated more and more genetic defects, so by the time of Moses, the laws against incest, as given in Le 18:1, were necessary. These laws helped prevent deformed children. Ed.)
g Pirke Eliezer, c. 21. h Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 4. Patricides apud Selden, de Jure Nat. Gent. l. 3. c. 2. l. 5. c. 9. i “et fuit aedificans”, Montanus, Drusius “era aedificans”. Fagius so Ainsworth; “studebat aedificare”, Junius & Tremellius. k History of the World, par. 1. B. 1. c. 5. sect. 2. p. 43.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17. And Cain knew his wife. From the context we may gather that Cain, before he slew his brother, had married a wife; otherwise Moses would now have related something respecting his marriage; because it would be a fact worthy to be recorded, that any one of his sisters could be found, who would not shrink with horror from committing herself into the hand of one whom she knew to be defiled with a brother’s blood; and while a free choice was still given her, should rather choose spontaneously to follow an exile and a fugitive, than to remain in her father’s family. Moreover, he relates it as a prodigy that Cain, having shaken off the terror he had mentioned, should have thought of having children: (250) for it is remarkable, that he who imagined himself to have as many enemies as there were men in the world, did not rather hide himself in some remote solitude. It is also contrary to nature, that he being astounded with fear; and feeling that God was opposed to him, could enjoy any pleasure. Indeed, it seems to me doubtful, whether he had previously had any children; for there would be nothing absurd in saying, that reference is here made especially to those who were born after the crime was committed, as to a detestable seed who would fully participate in the sanguinary disposition, and the savage manners of their father. This, however, is without controversy, that many persons, as well males as females, are omitted in this narrative; it being the design of Moses only to follow one line of his progeny, until he should come to Lamech. The house of Cain, therefore, was more populous than Moses states; but because of the memorable history of Lamech, which he is about to subjoin, he only adverts to one line of descendents, and passes over the rest in silence.
He built a city. This, at first sight, seems very contrary, both to the judgment of God, and to the preceding sentence. For Adam and the rest of his family, to whom God had assigned a fixed station, are passing their lives in hovels, or even under the open heaven, and seek their precarious lodging under trees; but the exile Cain, whom God had commanded to rove as a fugitive, not content with a private house, builds himself a city. It is, however, probable, that the man, oppressed by an accusing conscience, and not thinking himself safe within the walls of his own house, had contrived a new kind of defense: for Adam and the rest live dispersed through the fields for no other reason, than that they are less afraid. Wherefore, it is a sign of an agitated and guilty mind, that Cain thought of building a city for the purpose of separating himself from the rest of men; yet that pride was mixed with his diffidence and anxiety, appears, from his having called the city after his son. Thus different affections often contend with each other in the hearts of the wicked. Fear, the fruit of his iniquity, drives him within the walls of a city, that he may fortify himself in a manner before unknown; and, on the other hand, supercilious vanity breaks forth. Certainly he ought rather to have chosen that his name should be buried for ever; for how could his memory be transmitted, except to beheld in execration? Yet, ambition impels him to erect a monument to his race in the name of his city. What shall we here say, but that he had hardened himself against punishment, for the purpose of holding out,in inflated obstinacy, against God? Moreover although it is lawful to defend our lives by the fortifications of cities and of fortresses, yet the first origin of them is to be noted, because it is always profitable for us to behold our faults in their very remedies. When captious men sneeringly inquire, whence Cain had brought his architects and workmen to build his city, and whence he sent for citizens to inhabit it? I, in return, ask of them, what authority they have for believing that the city was constructed of squared stones, and with great skill, and at much expense, and that the building of it was a work of long continuance? For nothing further can be gathered from the words of Moses, than that Cain surrounded himself and his posterity with walls formed of the rudest materials: and as it respects the inhabitants; that in that commencement of the fecundity of mankind, his offspring would have grown to so great a number when it had reached his children of the fourth generation, that it might easily form the body of one city.
(250) “ Ad sobolem gignendam animum applicuisse.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CAIN AND HIS DESCENDANTS.
(17) Cain knew his wife.As Jehovah had told Eve that He would greatly multiply her conception (Gen. 3:16), we cannot doubt but that a numerous offspring had grown up in the 130 years that intervened between the birth of Cain and that of Seth, the substitute for Abel. As a rule, only the eldest son is mentioned in the genealogies, and Abels birth is chronicled chiefly because of his tragical end, leading to the enactment of the merciful law which followed and to the sundering of the human race. One of Adams daughters apparently clave unto her brother, in spite of the solemn decree of banishment passed upon him, probably, by his father, and followed him in his wanderings as his wife, and bare him a son, whom they called Enoch. Now this name, in Hebrew Chanoch, is of the utmost importance in estimating Cains character. It means train in Pro. 22:6 (Train up a child), but is used in Deu. 20:5 of the dedication of a house; and thus Cain also calls his city Enoch, dedicated. But in old times the ideas of training and dedication were closely allied, because teaching generally took the form of initiation into sacred rites, and one so initiated was regarded as a consecrated person. Though, then, the wife may have had most to do with giving the name, yet we see in it a purpose that the child should be a trained and consecrated man; and Cain must have now put off those fierce and violent habits which had led him into so terrible a crime. We may add that this prepares our minds for the rapid advance of the Cainites in the arts of civilisation, and for the very remarkable step next taken by Cain.
He builded a city.Heb., was building, that is, began to build a city. There was not as yet population enough for a city, but Cain, as his offspring increased, determined that they should dwell together, under training, in some dedicated common abode. He probably selected some fit spot for the acropolis, or citadel, to be the centre of his village; and as training is probably the earlier, and dedication the later meaning, Cain appears as a wise ruler, like Nimrod subsequently, rather than as a religious man. His purpose was much the same as that of the builders of the Tower of Babel, who wanted to keep mankind together that they might form a powerful community. It is worth notice that in the line of Seth, the name of the seventh and noblest of that race, is also Enoch, whose training was a close walk with God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Cain knew his wife See on Gen 4:1. “The text assumes it as self-evident that she accompanied him in his exile; also that she was a daughter of Adam, and, consequently a sister of Cain. The marriage of brothers and sisters was inevitable in the case of the children of the first men, if the human race was actually to descend from a single pair, and may, therefore, be justified in the face of the Mosaic prohibition of such marriages, on the ground that the sons and daughters of Adam represented not merely the family, but the race, ( genus,) and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bonds of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.” Keil.
Enoch Meaning initiated, as if with this son, and the city called after his name, Cain was instituting a new order of things.
He builded Literally, he was building. He began to build the city, perhaps before Enoch was born, and he continued building it long after. “The word city is, of course, not to be interpreted by modern ideas; a village of rude huts, which was distinguished from the booths or tents of the nomads, would satisfy all the conditions of the text.” Speaker’s Com. And yet something more pretentious than mere huts may well be understood. Nor is it far-fetched and irrelevant to trace in this first city-building the earliest attempt to centralize worldly forces, and construct something like world-empire, one of the outward forms of the later Antichrist. For the “mystery of iniquity” was already working in this very line of Cain, “who was of that wicked one.” 1Jn 3:12. The location of this city named Enoch is, like the land of Nod, unknown .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 4:17-24 . The Line of Cain.
The following account was probably originally a second covenant record. It is built around the covenant recognised between Lamech and Yahweh, but in view of its reference back to Yahweh’s covenant with Cain it may well have been conjoined with the previous record immediately. It is, however interesting to note that neither God nor Yahweh is directly mentioned in this section.
Gen 4:17
‘And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch (Chanokh), and he established an encampment, and called the name of the encampment after his son Enoch.’
All this would take a process of time. First he obtains for himself a wife, one of the daughters of Adam. Did he kidnap her, or did the aura of mystery that surrounded him make her willing to leave everything to be with him? As a result of this he has a son, Chanokh, meaning ‘dedication’ or ‘beginning’. He sees this as a new beginning which he dedicates, presumably to Yahweh, or at least to ‘God’. Then he establishes his encampment, which he names after his son Enoch.
The word ‘city’ can later refer either to an encampment of tents or to a regular city (Num 13:19 and see Gen 4:20 below) or probably also a group of caves. It refers to people gathered together in some form of organised society. This may indicate that others who have offended against the family, or who were particularly adventurous and envied his life of wandering, may have joined him, or it may be that his setting up of some kind of shelter is seen as the first beginnings of what grows into a larger encampment, thus ‘he built a city’ means ‘he established what would become a large encampment’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
EXPOSITION
Gen 4:17
Domiciled in Nod, whither, impelled by woman’s love, his wife had accompanied him, the unhappy fugitive began to seek, if not to find, relief from the gnawing agonies of remorse in the endearments of conjugal felicity and the occupations of secular industry. And Cain knew his wife. Who must have been his sister, and married before the death of Abel, as “after that event it can scarcely be supposed, that any woman would be willing to connect herself with such a miserable fratricide” (Bush). Though afterwards forbidden, the tendency of Divine legislation on the subject of marriage being always in the direction of enlarging rather than restricting the circle of prohibited relationships, the union of brothers and sisters at the first was clearly indispensable, if the race was to multiply outwards from a common stock. “Even in much later times, and among very civilized nations, such alliances were not considered incestuous. The Athenian law made it compulsory to marry the sister if she had not found a husband at a certain age. Abraham married his half-sister, Sarah; and the legislator Moses himself was the offspring of-a matrimony which he later interdicted as unholy” (Kalisch). And she conceived. For even from the unbelieving and unthankful, the disobedient and the repro. bate, God’s providential mercies are not entirely withheld (Psa 145:9; Mat 5:45). And bare Enoch. Chanoch, “dedicated,” “initiated,” from chanach, to instruct (Pro 22:6) and to consecrate (Deu 20:5; 1Ki 8:63). Candlish detects in the name the impious pride of the first murderer; with more charity, Keil and Kalisch see a promise of the renovation of his life. The latter thinks that Cain called his son “Initiated” or “Instructed” to intimate that he intended to instruct him from his early years in the duties of virtue, and his city “Dedicated” to signify that he now recognized that “the firstling of his social prosperity belongs to God.” If Luther’s conjecture be correct, that the child received its name from its mother, it will touchingly express that young mother’s hope that the child whom God had sent might be an augury of blessing for their saddened home, and her resolution both to consecrate him from his youth to God and to instruct him in God’s fear and worship. And he builded. Literally, was building, i.e. began to build, “but never finished, leading still a runagate life, and so often constrained to leave the work, as the giants did who built the tower of Babel” (Willet). A city. Vater, Hartmann, and Bohlen discover in the city-building of Cain “a main proof of the mythical contents of the narrative,” an advanced state of civilization “utterly unsuitable to so early a period;” but ancient tradition (Phoenician, Egyptian, and Hellenic) is unanimous in ascribing to the first men the invention of agriculture and the arts, with the discovery of metals, the origin of music, &c. (vide Havernick’s ‘Intro.,’ 16). Of course the which Cain erected was not a city according to modern ideas, but a keep or fort, enclosed with a wall for the defense of those who dwelt within (Murphy). It was the first step in the direction of civilization, and Kalisch notes it as a deep trait in the Biblical account that the origin of cities is ascribed not to the nomad, but to the agriculturist. Impelled by the necessities of his occupation to have a fixed residence, he would likewise in course of time be constrained by the multiplication of his household to insure their protection and comfort. It is possible also that his attempt to found a city may have been dictated by a desire to bid defiance to the curse which doomed him to a wandering life; to create for his family and himself a new point of interest outside the holy circle of Eden, and to find an outlet for those energies and powers of which, as an early progenitor of the race, he must have been conscious, and in the restless activity of which oblivion for his misery could alone be found. If so, it explains the action which is next recorded of him, that he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. I.e. he consecrated it to the realization of these his sinful hopes and schemes.
Gen 4:18
Years passed away, the family of Cain grew to manhood, and, in imitation of their parents, founded homes for themselves. And unto Enoch (whose wife probably would also be his sister, few caring at this early stage to intermarry with the accursed race) was born Irad. Townsman, citizen, urbanus civilis (Keil, Lange); fleet as a wild ass (Murphy); ornament of a city, from Ir, a city (Wordsworth). And Irad begat Mehujael. Smitten of God (Keil, Gesenius, Murphy), the purified or formed of God (Lange). And Mehujael begat Methusael. Man of God (Gesenius, Lange), man asked or man of El (Murphy), man of prayer (Keil). And Methusael begat Lamech. Strong youth (Gesenius, Lange); man of prayer, youth (Murphy); king, by metathesis for melech (Wordsworth). The resemblance between these names and those in the line of Seth has been accounted for by supposing a commingling of the two genealogies, or one common primitive legend in two forms (Ewald, Knobel). But
1. The similarity of the names does not necessarily imply the identity of the persons. Cf. Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (eh. Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Esau (Gen 36:11) and Judah (Num 32:12).
2. The similarity of the names only proves that the two collateral branches of the same family did not keep entirely apart.
3. The paucity of names at that early period may have led to their repetition.
4. The names in the two lines are only similar, not identical (cf. with Irad, Jared, descent; with Mehujael, Mahalaleel, praise of God; with Methusael, Methuselah, man of the sword).
5. The particulars related of Enoch and Lamech in the line of Seth forbid their identification with those of the same name in the line of Cain.
Gen 4:19
And Lamech took unto him two wives. Being the first polygamist of whom mention is made, the first by whom “the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh” (Keil). Though afterwards permitted because of the hardness of men’s hearts, it was not so from the beginning. This was “a new evil, without even the pretext that the first wife had no children, which held its ground until Christianity restored the original lawMatt, Gen 19:4-6” (Inglis). The names of Lamech’s wives were suggestive of sensual attractions. The name of the one Adah, the Adorned (Gesenius), and the name of the other Zillah, the shady or the tinkling (Keil), the musical player (Lange), the shadow (Wordsworth). “Did Lamech choose a wife to gratify the eye with loveliness? and was he soon sated with that which is so short-lived as beauty, and then chose another wife in addition to Adah? But a second wife is hardly a wife; she is only the shadow of a wife” (ibid.).
Gen 4:20
And Adah bare Jabal. Either the Traveler or the Producer, from yabhal, to flow; poetically, to go to walk; hiphil, to produce; descriptive, in the one case, of his nomadic life, in the other of his occupation or his wealth. He was the fatherav, father; used of the founder of a family or nation (Gen 10:21), of the author or maker of anything, especially of the Creator'(Job 38:28), of the master or teacher of any art or science (Gen 4:21)of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. Mikneh, literally, possession, from kanah, to acquire, as in Gen 4:1; hence cattle, as that was the primitive form of wealth (cf. pecus, pecunia); by which may be meant that Jabal was the first nomad who introduced the custom of living in tents, and pasturing and breeding not sheep merely, but larger quadrupeds as well, for the sake of wealth.
Gen 4:21
And his brother’s name was Jubal. Player on an instrument, the musician. Cf. jobel, an onomatopoetic word signifying jubilum, a joyful sound. Cf. Greek, ; Latin, ululare; Swedish, iolen; Dutch, ioelen; German, juchen (Geseuius). He was the father of all such as handle the harp. The kinnor, a stringed instrument, played on by the plectrum according to Josephus (‘Ant.,’ 7, 12, 3), but in David’s time by the hand (1Sa 16:23; 1Sa 18:10; 1Sa 19:9), corresponding to the modern lyre. Cf. , cithara; German, knarren; so named either from its tremulous, stridulous sound (Gesenius), or from its bent, arched form (Furst). And the organ. ‘Ugabh, from a root signifying to breathe or blow (Gesenius), or to make a lovely sound (Furst); hence generally a wind instrumenttibia, ftstula, syrinx; the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe (Keil); the pipe or flute (Onkelos); the organon, i.e. an instrument composed of many pipes (Jerome). Kalisch discovers a fitness in the invention of musical instruments by the brother of a nomadic herdsman, as it is “in the happy leisure of this occupation that music is generally first exercised and appreciated.” Murphy sees an indication of the easy circumstances of the line of Cain; Candlish, “an instance of the high cultivation which a people may often possess who are altogether irreligious and ungodly;” Bonar, a token of their deepening depravity”it is to shut God out that these Cainites devise the harp and the organ.”
Gen 4:22
And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain. Worker in brass or iron;related to Persian, tupal, iron dross (Gesenius, Rodiger, Delitzsch). Keil and Furst think this Persian root cannot be regarded as the proper explanation of the name. Furst suggests that the tribe may have been originally named Tubal, and known as inventors of smith-work and agricultural implements, and that Cain may have been afterwards added to them to identify them as Cainites (vide ‘Lex. sub hem.’). The name Tubal, like the previous names Jabal and Jubal, is connected with the root yabal, to flow, and probably was indicative of the general prosperity of the race. Their ancestor was specially distinguished as an instructor (literally, a whetter) of every artificer (instrument, LXX. ,Vulgate, Kalisch) in brass (more correctly copper) and iron , according to Gesenius a quadrilateral from the Genesis , to transfix, with appended; according to Furst out of , from , to be hard, by resolving the dagesh into r. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamahthe lovely. Considering. the general significance of names, we shall scarcely go astray if with Kalisch we find in the name of the sister of Tubal-cain, “the beautiful,” as compared with that of Adam’s wife, “the living,” a growing symptom of the degeneracy of the times. Beauty, rather than helpfulness, was now become the chief attraction in woman. Men selected wives for their lovely forms and faces rather than for their loving and pious hearts. The reason for the introduction of Naamah’s name into the narrative commentators generally are at a loss to discover. Ingiis with much ingenuity connects it with the tragedy which some see in the lines that follow.
Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24
And Lamech said unto his wives. The words have an archaic simplicity which bespeak a high antiquity, naturally fall into that peculiar form of parallelism which is a well-known characteristic of Hebrew poetry, and on this account, as welt as from the subject, have been aptly denominated The Song of the Sword.
Adah and gillah, Hear my voice;
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech:
For I have slain a mum to my wounding (for my wound),
And a young man to my hurt (because of my strife).
If (for) Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Truly (and) Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
Origen wrote two whole books of his commentary on Genesis on this song, and at last pronounced it inexplicable. The chief difficulty in its exegesis concerns the sense in which the words are to be taken.
1. If the verb be rendered as a preterit (LXX; Vulgate, Syriac, Kalisch, Murphy, Alford, Jamieson, Luther), then Lamech is represented as informing his wives that in self-defense he has slain a young man who wounded him (not two men, as some read), but that there is no reason to apprehend danger on that account; for if God had promised to avenge Cain sevenfold, should any one kill him, he, being not a willful murderer, but at worst a culpable homicide, would be avenged seventy and sevenfold.
2. If the verb be regarded as a future (Aben Ezra, Calvin, Kiel, Speaker’s. “The preterit stands for the future (4) In protestations and assurances in which the mind of the speaker views the action as already accomplished, being as good as done”Gesenius, ‘Hebrews Gram.,’ 126), then the father of Tubal-cain is depicted as exulting in the weapons which his son’s genius had invented, and with boastful arrogance threatening death to the first man that should injure him, impiously asserting that by means of these same weapons he would exact upon his adversary a vengeance ten times greater than that which had been threatened against the murderer of Cain. Considering the character of the speaker and the spirit of the times, it is probable that this is the correct interpretation.
3. A third interpretation proposes to understand the words of Lamech hypothetically, as thus:”If I should slay a man, then,” &c. (Lunge, Bush); but this does not materially differ from the first, only putting the case conditionally, which the first asserts categorically.
4. A fourth gives to the force of a question, and imagines Lamech to be assuring his wives, who are supposed to have been apprehensive of some evil befalling their husband through the use of Tubal-cain’s dangerous weapons, that there was no cause for their anxieties and alarms, as he had not slain a man, that he should be wounded, or a young man, that he should be hurt; but this interpretation, it may be fairly urged, is too strained to be even probably correct.
Gen 4:25, Gen 4:26
The narrative now reverts to the fortunes of the doubly saddened pair. And Adam knew his wife again. Having mournfully abstained for a season a thro conjugali (Calvin); not necessarily implying that Adam and Eve had not other children who had grown to man’s estate prior to the death of Abel (cf. Gen 5:4). And she bare a son, and called his name Seth. Sheth, from shith, to put or place; hence appointed, put, compensation. For God, said she, hath appointed me another seedsemen singulars (Calvin); filium, Eve having borne daughters previously (Onkelos, Jonathon, Dathe, Rosenmller)instead of Abel. Her other children probably had gone in the way of Cain, leaving none to carry on the holy line, till this son was born, whom in faith she expects to be another Abel in respect of piety, but, unlike him, the head of a godly family (Calvin). Whom Cain slew. Literally, for Cain killed him (Kalisch). The A. V. follows the LXX; , and has the. Support of Gesenius, who renders =. (see ‘Lax. sub nom.’); of Rosenmller, who says, “Conjunctio enim causalis saepius pro relative pronomine usurpatur,” quoting, though without much aptness, Psa 71:15 (com. in loco); and of Sal. Glass, who supplies several so-called examples of the relative force of , every one of which is perfectly intelligible by translating the particle as quia (‘Sac. Philippians, 3.2, 15.); and of Stanley Leathes (‘Hebrews Gram.,’ Gen 12:16). There seems, however, no sufficient reason for departing from the ordinary casual signification of the particle. Furst does not recognize the meaning which Gesenius attaches to , And to Seth, to him also there was born a son. Thus the expectations of Eve concerning her God-given son were not disappointed, but realized in the commencement and continuance of a godly line. The pious father of this succeeding child, however, had either begun to realize the feebleness and weakness of human life, or perhaps to be conscious of the sickly and infirm state in which religion then was. And he called his (son’s) name Enos. Enosh, “man” (Gesenius); “mortal, decaying man” (Furst); “man, sickly” (Murphy). Then began men. Literally, it was begun. Huchal third preterite hophal of chalal (Greek, ), to open a way. Hence “the literal sense of the word is, a way was now opened up, and an access afforded, to the worship of God, in the particular manner here described” (Wordsworth). To call upon the name of the The Lord. Either
(1) to invoke by prayer the name of Jehovah, i.e. Jehovah himself as he had been pleased to discover his attributes and character to men, referring to the formal institution of public worship. “The expression is elsewhere used to denote all the appropriate acts and exercises of the stated worship of GodGen 12:8; Gen 13:4; Gen 21:33; 1Ch 16:8; Psa 105:1” (Bush). Or
(2) to call themselves by the name of Jehovahcf. Num 32:42; Jdg 18:29; Psa 49:12; Isa 44:5 (margin). Other renderings need only be mentioned to be set aside.
(a) Then began men profanely to call upon the name of God (Onkelos, Jonathan, Josephus), referring to the institution of idolatry.
(b) Then men became so profane as to cease to call (Chaldee Targum).
(c) Then he hoped to call upon the name of the Lord; }toj h!lpisen e)pikalei=sqai to_ o!noma Kuri&on tou= qeou= (LXX).
(d) Then the name Jehovah was for the first time invoked (Cajetan), which is disproved by Gen 4:3.
HOMILETICS
Gen 4:17-26
The progress of the race.
I. ITS INCREASE IN POPULATION. Starting from a single pair in Eden, in the course of seven generations the human family must have attained to very considerable dimensions. At the birth of Seth, Adam was 130 years old, and in all probability had other sons and daughters- besides Cain and his wife. If Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, was contemporaneous with Enoch, the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth, at least 600 years had passed away since the race began to multiply; and “if Abraham’s stock in lease than 400 years amounted to 600,000, Cain’s posterity in the like time might arise to the like multitude” (Wilier). If to these the descendants of Seth be added, it will at once appear that the earth’s population in the time of Lamech was considerably over 1,000,000 of inhabitants. Let it remind us of the reality and power of God’s blessing (Gen 1:28).
II. ITS ADVANCEMENT IN INTELLIGENCE, “It is a curious fact that while all modern writers admit the great antiquity of man, most of them maintain the very recent development of his intellect, and will hardly contemplate the possibility of men equal in mental capacity to ourselves having existed in prehistoric (?) times”. For prehistoric write antediluvian, and the sentiment is exactly true. The circumstance that we have no remains of antediluvian civilization is no sufficient evidence that such did not exist. Speaking of certain earthworks of great antiquity that have been discovered in the Mississippi valley, camps, or works of defense, sacred enclosures, with their connected groups of circles, octagons, squares, ellipses, polished and ornamented pottery, &c.,the same distinguished writer says. “The important thing for us is, that when North America was first settled by Europeans, the Indian tribes inhabiting it had no knowledge or tradition of any races preceding themselves of higher civilization. Yet we find that such races existed; that they must have been populous, and have lived under some established government; while there are signs that they practiced agriculture greatly, as indeed they must have done to have supported a population capable of executing such gigantic works in such vast profusion.” The exhumation by Dr. Schliemann on the plains of Troy of three successive civilizations, of which two were not known to have previously existed, and the third (the Ilium of Homer) had been almost regarded by archeologists as fabulous, is conclusive demonstration that the absence of all traces of primeval civilization is no more a proof that such civilization did not exist, than is the absence of all traces of the third day’s vegetation a proof that it did not exist. The passage under consideration unmistakably reveals that the human intellect in those early times was not asleep. Within the compass of ten verses we read of the building of cities, of the laying out of farms and the acquisition of property, of the beginning of the mechanical arts and the manufacture of metallic weapons, of the rise of music and the cultivation of poetry. It may strike one as peculiar that this great intellectual development is represented as taking place exclusively in the line of Cain. From this some have inferred that the Bible means to throw disparagement upon human industry, commercial and agricultural enterprise, and all kinds of mechanical and inventive genius, and even sanctions the idea that religion is incompatible with business talent, poetical genius, and intellectual greatness. There is however, no reason to suppose that this advancement in intelligence was confined to the Cainitic branch of the Adamic race. The prophecy of Enoch (vide Expos.) and the incidental allusion to metallic weapons in the name of Methuselah (man of the dart) suggest that the Sethitic line kept pace with their ungodly contemporaries in the onward march of civilization, though that was not their chief distinction. Let us learn
1. That there is no essential antagonism between intelligence and piety.
2. That in God’s estimation righteousness is of much higher value than material prosperity.
3. That where, as in the Cainitic line, there is no true godliness-there is apt to be too intense devotion to culture or business.
III. ITS DECLENSION IN WICKEDNESS.
1. We can trace it in their names. Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Lamech being suggestive of qualities, principles, characteristics such as are approved by the spirit of worldliness; and Adah and Zillah (vide Expos.) being indicative of sensual attractions.
2. Their works proclaim it. It would be wrong to say that cities are necessarily evil things. On the contrary, they are magnificent monuments of man’s constructive genius, and immensely productive of man’s comfort. A city too is a type of heaven’s gathering of redeemed humanity. Still it cannot be doubted that the need for cities was a proof of sin, as the building of the first city was an act of sin. The acquisition of property, and the uprise of such ideas as the rights of property, are likewise indications of a state of life that is not purely innocent (cf. Act 4:32). And though certainly it cannot be sinful either to make or to handle a harp, or to cultivate poetry, yet when we put all these things togetherbeautiful wives, iron weapons, musical instruments, and warlike ballads, if not bacchanalian songsit is not difficult to perceive a deepening of that devotion to the things of this life which invariably proclaims a departure from the life of God.
3. Their immoral lives attest it. A growing disregard for the marriage law is evinced by the polygamy of Lamech; in the manufacture and use of offensive weapons we see the rising of a turbulent and lawless spirit; and these two things, licentiousness and lawlessness, always mark the downward progress of an age or people.
IV. ITS PROGRESS IN RELIGION; at least in a section of its population, the godly line of Seth, in whom the piety of Abel was revived. Yet the narrative would seem to indicate that even they were not entirely free from the prevailing wickedness of the times. In the third generation the pressure of the worldly spirit upon the company of the faithful was so great that they felt obliged, as it were, in self-defense, to buttress their piety by a double wall of protection; viz; separation from their ungodly associates in the world by the formation of a distinct religious community, and by the institution of stated social worship (Gen 4:26). And without these declension in true religion is as certain as with them advancement is secure. They are the New Testament rules for the cultivation of piety (2Co 6:14-18; Eph 4:11-13; Heb 10:25).
Lessons:
1. The downward progress of sin.
2. The danger of intellect and civilization when divorced from piety.
3. The only right use of earth and earthly things is to make all subservient to the life of grace.
4. The danger of conformity to the world.
5. The only safety for the people of God, and especially in these times of great intellectual activity and mechanical and scientific skill, is to make deep and wide the line of distinction between them and the world, and steadfastly to maintain the public as well as private ordinances of religion.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 4:16-24
The kingdom of God contrasted with the kingdom of this world.
Society without the Lord. The banished Cain and his descendants.
I. MULTIPLICATION apart from Divine order is no blessing.
II. CIVILIZATION without religion is a chaos of conflicting forces, producing violence, bloodshed, working out its own ruin. Compare France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Arts of life may grow from a mere natural root. Music, mechanical skill, scientific discovery, and invention, in themselves contain no moral life. Luxury turns to corruption, and so to misery.
III. RELIGION IS THE BASIS OF SOCIAL PROSPERITY. It is the true defense against the “inhumanity of man.” Lamech, with his artificial protection against violent revenge, suggests the true safety in the presence of the Lord and observance of his commandments.R.
Gen 4:25, Gen 4:26
Revelation in history.
The reappearance of the redeeming purpose. The consecrated family of Adam. The Divinely blessed line of descent preserved leading onward to the fulfillment of the first promise. “Then begat, men to call upon the name of Jehovah.”
I. THE COMMENCEMENT OF REGULAR WORSHIP, possibly of distinct Church life.
1. The name of the Lord is the true center of fellowshipincluding revelation, redemption, promise.
2. The pressure of outward calamity and danger, the multiplication of the unbelievers, the necessary separation from an evil world, motives to call upon God.
II. RENOVATION AND RE–ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS LIFE WORKS OUT GOD‘S BLESSING ON THE RACE. The separated seed bears the promise of the future. See the repetition of the message of grace in the names of the descendants of Seth, “the appointed.”
II. The worship which was maintained by men was ENCOURAGED AND DEVELOPED BY REVELATIONS and special communications from Jehovah. Probably there were prophets sent. Methuselah, taking up the ministry of Enoch, and himself delivering the message to Noah, the preacher of righteousness. It is the method of God throughout all the dispensations to meet men’s call upon his name with gracious manifestations to them.
IV. THE PERIOD OF AWAKENED RELIGIOUS LIFE and of special messengers, culminating in the long testimony and warning of Noah~ preceded the period of outpoured judgment. So it is universally. There is no manifestation of wrath which does not vindicate righteousness. He is long-suffering, and waits. He sends the spirit of life first. Then the angel of death.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 4:17. And Cain, &c. It is evident from this verse, how brief the narration of Moses is, how he passes over time, and connects events of many years distance. For it is plain, that several years must have passed from the exile of Cain to his building this city. He chose rather to call it after his son’s name than his own, probably because of the odium under which he lay.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Ver. 17. And he builded a city. ] So, many drown themselves either in secular businesses, or sensual pleasures, and all to put by their melancholy dumps, and heart-qualms, as they call them; indeed to muffle up the mouths of their horribly guilty consciences. So Nicephorus Phocas, when, Zimri-like, he had killed his master, he laboured, like Cain, to secure himself with building high walls. After which, he heard a voice telling him, that though he built his walls never so high, yet sin within the walls would undermine all. a Besides that, one small drop of an evil conscience troubles a whole sea of outward comforts and contentments: a confluence whereof would no more ease conscience, than a silken stocking would do a broken leg. Silly are they that think to glide away their groans with games, and their cares with cards, &c.
Called the city after the name of his son Enoch.
a , . – Cedren .
b De male quaesito vix gaudet tertius haeres . – Lucan .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 4:17-22
17Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. 18Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech. 19Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. 20Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
Gen 4:17 Cain had relations with his wife Who did he marry? Most conservative scholars assume he married one of his sisters, but this is never stated in the Bible. Gen 5:4 does state that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. One wonders about the people outside the garden whom Cain was afraid of in Gen 4:14 (see note at Gen 4:14).
she conceived and gave birth to Enoch All etymologies of these names are very doubtful. The name Enoch may mean beginner or initiator (BDB 335). There is an obvious similarity between the list of Cain’s children and the list of Seth’s children in chapter 5 (ex. Enoch and Lamech). The exact reason for this etymological similarity is uncertain, but it shows (1) that the two families had many social connections, or (2) the spiritual differences of these two Enochs.
Also notice that the length of the lives of Cain’s line are not given. This may imply that the extended ages of Seth’s line are symbolic of renown or praise (as with the list of ten Sumerian kings who had extended lives before and after the flood. The length of life decreases after the flood but is still very long by today’s standards).
he built a city This seems to be in direct defiance to God’s command that he would be a wanderer (cf. Gen 4:12; Gen 4:14). Others have seen this as an example of Cain’s fear that someone would kill him; therefore, he built a fort to protect himself and his family (similar to the purpose of the Tower of Babel).
Gen 4:18 Now to Enoch was born Irad Possible etymologies of this term are: (1) ornament of the city; (2) townsman; or (3) fleet-footed (BDB 747).
Mehujael The possible etymologies of this term are (1) God is giver of life; (2) God is giver of fountain of life; (3) smitten of God; or (4) formed of God (BDB 562).
Methushael The possible etymologies of this term are (1) Man of God; (2) strong youth; or (3) king (BDB 607).
Gen 4:19 Lamech took to himself two wives This is the first account of polygamy and it begins in the fallen line of Cain. The name Lamech is of uncertain origins (BDB 541).
Adah. . .Zillah These two women’s names are a play on terms for physical beauty. The rabbis say that one was his wife to bear children and one was his mistress for pleasure. The name Adah can mean ornament or morning (BDB 725) ,while the name Zillah seems to mean shade or shelter, tinkling or musical player (BDB 853).
Gen 4:20 Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock This term seems to mean wanderer (BDB 385 II), which describes the nomadic life which he apparently developed.
Gen 4:21 Jubal. . .all those who play the lyre and pipe Some assert that his name means sound. This is the beginning of certain gifts of musical skills. This tribal group developed not only the stringed instruments but also the wind instruments.
Gen 4:22 Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron This man (BDB 1063) was the first to make weapons of war. It is possible that the three people mentioned in Gen 4:21-22 are named to reflect their occupations.
Naamah This name means pleasant or beautiful (BDB 653 I). The rabbis say that she married Noah but this is highly unlikely.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Enoch = Teaching or Initiation. Cain’s posterity (verses: Gen 4:16-24) comes in “the Generations of the heavens and the earth” (see Structure, p. 5). See App-20. This seed was begotten after the slaying of Abel.
city. A city has been discovered beneath the brick platform on which Nipur, in South Babylonia, was built. This verse shows there were people on earth other than Adam’s children, or Cain married his full sister.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
builded a city
The first civilization, that which perished in the judgment of the Flood, was Cainitic in origin, character, and destiny. Every element of material civilization is mentioned in verses Gen 4:16-22, city and pastoral life, and the development of arts and manufactures. Enoch, after whom the first city was named, means “teacher.” The el termination of the names of Enoch’s son and grandson shows that for a time the knowledge of Elohim was preserved, but this soon disappears Rom 1:21-23. Adah means “pleasure,” or “adornment”; Zillah, to “hide”; Lamech, “conqueror,” or “wild man.” (Cf) Rom 1:21-25. (See Scofield “Gen 6:4”). The Cainitic civilization may have been as splendid as that of Greece or Rome, but the divine judgment is according to the moral state, not the material. Gen 6:5-7.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Enoch: Gen 5:18, Gen 5:22
and he: Gen 11:4, Ecc 2:4-11, Dan 4:30, Luk 17:28, Luk 17:29
the name: 2Sa 18:18, Psa 49:11
Reciprocal: 2Ki 22:6 – builders
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 4:17-26. Cainite and Sethite Genealogies.
Gen 4:17-24 probably belongs to the earliest stratum of J, in which the progress of civilisation is not interrupted by the Flood, and the human race is derived from Adam through Cain. When the story of the Deluge was added and the race of Cain was believed to have been exterminated in the Flood, a Sethite genealogy was required. Only a fragment (Gen 4:25 f) of this is given from J, the redactor having omitted the rest since it was given with dates by P (5). The Sethite table is modelled on the Cainite, for several of the names recur in the same or a slightly altered form. While P gives a bare list, J adds interesting details. This section, moreover, does not belong to the same stratum of J as the story of Cain and Abel. In the latter, Cain is a homeless wanderer in the desert, in the former he is the builder of a city. He is thus a culture-hero, and further steps towards civilisation were taken by Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain, who introduced the domestication of cattle, music, and metal-working. Gen 4:23 f. is often thought to be a sword-song; exulting in the new resources given him by Tubal-cain, Lamech says that the vengeance taken for Cain will in his own case be far exceeded. But this is due simply to its present setting, for Tubal-cain is not said to have invented weapons, nor are weapons mentioned in the song. Originally it was probably independent. It contains a boast of Lamech that he avenges himself far more thoroughly than Cain is avenged. He kills in return for a blow and thus gets seven and seventy-fold vengeance. The code of blood-revenge practised is exceptionally ferocious. Such bragging of their prowess and fierceness before the women is common among the Bedouin. In its present form the Sethite genealogy represents Seth as a substitute for Cain, but originally it is questionable if it was so (cf. ICC); this writer may have regarded Seth as the first-born, Cain being ignored. Gen 4:26 b seems to mean that the worship of Yahweh was introduced in the days of Adams grandson, a representation which conflicts with Gen 4:1-16.
Genesis 20. father: i.e. originator of this type of life. The text of the following words is uncertain.
Gen 4:22. Corrupt. Read, perhaps, he was a forger, the father of every artificer (mg.) of brass and iron.
Gen 4:25. Adam: only here as a proper name in J.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a {p} city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
(p) Thinking by this to be safe, and to have less reason to fear God’s judgments against him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. The spread of civilization and sin 4:17-26
Cain prospered even though he rebelled against God. This is another indication of God’s grace. Cain’s descendants took the lead in building cities, developing music, advancing agriculture, creating weapons, and spreading civilization. However the descendants of Seth made an even more important advance, the worship of God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The descendants of Cain 4:17-24
"By virtue of being Cain’s descendants, the people named in the genealogy all inherit his curse. Thus the Cainite genealogy becomes part of the Yahwist’s account of man’s increasing sin." [Note: R. R. Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Biblical World, p. 155.]
Cain’s wife (Gen 4:17) was evidently one of his sisters or nieces (cf. Gen 5:4). God did not prohibit marrying siblings and close relatives until the Mosaic Law.
"Because harmful mutations so greatly outnumber any supposed helpful ones, it’s considered unwise nowadays (and illegal in many states) to marry someone too closely related to you. Why? Because you greatly increase the odds that bad genes will show up. By the way, you also increase the odds of bringing out really excellent trait combinations. But did you ever hear anybody say, ’Don’t marry your first cousin or you’ll have a genius for a child?’ They don’t usually say that, because the odds of something bad happening are far, far, far, far, far greater.
"That would not have been a problem, by the way, shortly after creation (no problem for Cain and his wife, for example). Until mutations had a chance to accumulate in the human population, no such risk of bad combinations existed." [Note: Gary Parker, Creation Facts of Life, p. 98. This is an excellent book that deals with the evidence of creation, Darwin and biologic change, and the fossil evidence. See also Ham, et al., pp. 17, 177-85.]
Lamech (Gen 4:19) was the first bigamist. Bigamy was common in the ancient Near East, but it was never God’s desire (cf. Gen 2:24; Mat 19:4-5). God permitted it, however, as He did many other customs of which He disapproved (e.g., divorce, marrying concubines, polygamy, etc.). That is, He allowed people who practiced them to continue to live.
"To be sure, no rebuke from God is directed at Lamech for his violation of the marital arrangement. It is simply recorded. But that is the case with most OT illustrations of polygamy. Abraham is not condemned for cohabiting with Sarah and Hagar, nor is Jacob for marrying simultaneously Leah and Rachel. In fact, however, nearly every polygamous househould [sic] in the OT suffers most unpleasant and shattering experiences precisely because of this ad hoc relationship. The domestic struggles that ensue are devastating." [Note: Hamilton, p. 238. Cf. Deuteronomy 21:15-17.]
"Cain’s family is a microcosm: its pattern of technical prowess and moral failure is that of humanity." [Note: Kidner, p. 78.]
God shows the destructive consequences of sin (cf. Gen 2:24) more often than He states them in the Old Testament. Polygamy is one form of sin.
Polygamy is ". . . the symptom of an unbalanced view of marriage, which regards it as an institution in which the wife’s ultimate raison d’etre [reason for being] is the production of children. Where God had created the woman first and foremost for partnership, society made her in effect a means to an end, even if a noble end, and wrote its view into its marriage contracts." [Note: Ibid., p. 36.]
This is the first occurrence of polygamy in Genesis. We shall find several cases of it throughout the Old Testament. People practiced it widely in the ancient Near East, but it was contrary to the will of God (Gen 2:24). Besides indulging the flesh, polygamy was an attempt to ensure the survival of the family by providing male successors. [Note: For a good, brief introduction to polygamy, see M. Stephen Davis, "Polygamy in the Ancient World," Biblical Illustrator 14:1 (Fall 1987):34-36.] The presence of polygamy in Lamech’s generation shows how sin escalated in the marriage relationship following the Fall.
The reference to forging (lit. sharpening) iron implements (Gen 4:22) appears anacronistic since the smelting of iron was not common until the Iron Age, in the second millennium B.C. Perhaps this is a reference to the cold forging of meteoric iron, which was common earlier. [Note: The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Mining and Metals," by A. Stuart. See also Mathews, p. 287; and Hamilton, p. 239.]
We could paraphrase the idea in Lamech’s mind as expressed in Gen 4:23-24 more clearly as follows. "If I am threatened again, I will retaliate again, even more forcefully than Cain did." Lamech may have been claiming that he had killed in self-defense. Nevertheless he was boasting and shows himself thereby to be more barbaric than his forefather Cain (cf. Exo 21:25). The seventh generations from Adam through Cain and Seth, ungodly Lamech (Gen 4:19-24) and godly Enoch (Gen 5:24), stand in sharp contrast to each other. The former man inflicts death, and the latter does not die. Some scholars have called Lamech’s poem the "Song of the Sword." Lamech thought himself invincible with his newly acquired weapons.
"Both Cain’s antediluvian lineage and the postdiluvian Babel cautioned later Israel that cities founded upon arrogance resulted in violence and ultimately destruction." [Note: Mathews, pp. 282-83.]