As sin spreads through the first family into worship, anger, murder, and escalating violence, God judges evil yet preserves a line through which His name will still be called upon.
Text Size
Genesis 4
Sin Spreads Through Worship, Jealousy, Violence, and the Preservation of a Worshiping Line
As sin spreads through the first family into worship, anger, murder, and escalating violence, God judges evil yet preserves a line through which His name will still be called upon.
Reading a chapter
What this page is: Each chapter page shows the big idea, the argument flow, key original-language terms, doctrine connections, and passage units, all in one place.
How to use it: Start with the Overview tab to get the chapter's main point. Then move to Passages to study individual units, or Language to trace key terms.
Going deeper: The Doctrines and Motifs tabs show how this chapter connects to the broader biblical story.
Chapter Summary
As sin spreads through the first family into worship, anger, murder, and escalating violence, God judges evil yet preserves a line through which His name will still be called upon.
Overview
Genesis 4 demonstrates that sin after Eden is not merely inward corruption but an expanding force that deforms worship, relationships, labor, culture, and society. The chapter begins in the context of worship, showing that the heart’s posture before God matters and that acceptable worship cannot be divorced from righteousness, faith, and obedience. Cain’s anger at divine disfavor becomes the setting for one of Scripture’s earliest moral warnings: sin is depicted as a predatory power crouching at the door, seeking mastery.
Rather than mastering sin, Cain yields to it and murders His brother, proving that rebellion against God quickly becomes violence against neighbor. God’s judgment is just and searching, especially in the blood-crying-from-the-ground language, yet even in judgment God restrains total vengeance against Cain. The genealogy of Cain’s descendants shows that human culture may advance outwardly while remaining morally corrupted inwardly.
The line culminates in Lamech, whose song reveals intensified arrogance and bloodshed. Yet the chapter does not end with Cain’s line, but with Seth and the beginning of public calling on the name of the Lord. Thus Genesis 4 traces both the widening reach of sin and the preserving mercy of God, maintaining the redemptive line in the midst of human corruption.
Genesis 4 records the first generation born outside Eden and shows that the fall of Genesis 3 was not an isolated event, but the beginning of an expanding pattern of sin within human history. The chapter moves from exile into the realm of family life, worship, labor, murder, judgment, social development, and the emergence of distinct human lines. It explains how rebellion against God quickly manifests itself in distorted worship, anger, envy, bloodshed, pride, vengeance, and alienation.
At the same time, the chapter also preserves the beginnings of a godward line through Seth, culminating in the statement that people began to call on the name of the Lord. Within Genesis 1–11, Genesis 4 shows that the corruption introduced by Adam’s sin now works itself outward in the ordinary structures of human life. This chapter therefore deepens the doctrine of sin by showing its generational, relational, and societal effects, while also showing that God continues to preserve humanity and sustain the hope of redemptive promise.
Structural Flow
Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel, and the brothers take up distinct vocations, one as a worker of the ground and the other as a keeper of flocks.
Both brothers bring offerings to the Lord, but the Lord regards Abel and His offering while not regarding Cain and His offering.
The Lord confronts Cain in His anger and warns Him that sin is crouching at the door and must be ruled over.
Cain rises up against Abel and murders Him in the field.
The Lord questions Cain, exposes the crime, and pronounces judgment, including curse and restless wandering.
Cain responds to judgment, receives a protective sign from the Lord, and settles east of Eden in the land of Nod.
Cain’s line develops city-building, cultural arts, and technological advances, but also intensifies violence, climaxing in Lamech’s boastful vengeance.
Adam and Eve receive Seth, and through His line a renewed pattern of calling on the name of the Lord is marked out.
Chapter Outline
- 4:1–2: Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel, and the brothers take up distinct vocations, one as a worker of the ground and the other as a keeper of flocks.
- 4:3–5: Both brothers bring offerings to the Lord, but the Lord regards Abel and His offering while not regarding Cain and His offering.
- 4:6–7: The Lord confronts Cain in His anger and warns Him that sin is crouching at the door and must be ruled over.
- 4:8: Cain rises up against Abel and murders Him in the field.
- 4:9–12: The Lord questions Cain, exposes the crime, and pronounces judgment, including curse and restless wandering.
- 4:13–16: Cain responds to judgment, receives a protective sign from the Lord, and settles east of Eden in the land of Nod.
- 4:17–24: Cain’s line develops city-building, cultural arts, and technological advances, but also intensifies violence, climaxing in Lamech’s boastful vengeance.
- 4:25–26: Adam and Eve receive Seth, and through His line a renewed pattern of calling on the name of the Lord is marked out.
Theological Focus
- Hamartiology
- Worship
- Judgment
- Human Violence
- Common Grace
- Seed-Line Conflict
- Divine Warning
- Preserving Mercy
- Theology Proper
- Anthropology
- Christology Preparation
- Worship Theology
- Covenant Theology
- Biblical Theology
Covenant Significance
Genesis 4 advances covenant history by showing the conflict between lines, the persistence of sin after covenant breach, and the preservation of a worshiping people despite judgment. The chapter displays the outworking of Genesis 3:15 in embryonic form, as hostility, murder, and divergent human lines begin to appear. Cain’s line reflects rebellion and violence, while Seth’s line becomes associated with calling on the name of the Lord.
In this way the chapter contributes to the unfolding covenantal distinction between those who persist in defiant rebellion and those through whom God’s redemptive purpose continues.
Canonical Connections
Genesis 4 advances covenant history by showing the conflict between lines, the persistence of sin after covenant breach, and the preservation of a worshiping people despite judgment. The chapter displays the outworking of Genesis 3:15 in embryonic form, as hostility, murder, and divergent human lines begin to appear. Cain’s line reflects rebellion and violence, while Seth’s line becomes associated with calling on the name of the Lord.
In this way the chapter contributes to the unfolding covenantal distinction between those who persist in defiant rebellion and those through whom God’s redemptive purpose continues.
Genesis 3:15
Genesis 9:5-6
Psalm 4:5
Proverbs 4:23
Isaiah 1:11-17
Genesis 3:15-24
Genesis 5:1-32
Genesis 6:5-8
James 4:1-2
Cross References
Gospel Clarity
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Primary Emphasis
Genesis 4 contributes to Christology by intensifying the seed conflict introduced in Genesis 3. Abel, the righteous brother whose blood is shed, becomes a significant canonical type later contrasted with Christ. Abel’s blood cries out from the ground for justice, while the blood of Christ speaks a better word. The chapter also prepares for Christ as the righteous one rejected by His brothers, the true worshiper, and the one who overcomes the murderous works of the evil one.
Cain’s hatred and Abel’s accepted status provide early categories that later Scripture develops in relation to faith, righteousness, and the world’s hostility toward the godly.
Chapter Contribution
Genesis 4 demonstrates that sin after Eden is not merely inward corruption but an expanding force that deforms worship, relationships, labor, culture, and society. The chapter begins in the context of worship, showing that the heart’s posture before God matters and that acceptable worship cannot be divorced from righteousness, faith, and obedience. Cain’s anger at divine disfavor becomes the setting for one of Scripture’s earliest moral warnings: sin is depicted as a predatory power crouching at the door, seeking mastery.
Rather than mastering sin, Cain yields to it and murders His brother, proving that rebellion against God quickly becomes violence against neighbor. God’s judgment is just and searching, especially in the blood-crying-from-the-ground language, yet even in judgment God restrains total vengeance against Cain. The genealogy of Cain’s descendants shows that human culture may advance outwardly while remaining morally corrupted inwardly.
The line culminates in Lamech, whose song reveals intensified arrogance and bloodshed. Yet the chapter does not end with Cain’s line, but with Seth and the beginning of public calling on the name of the Lord. Thus Genesis 4 traces both the widening reach of sin and the preserving mercy of God, maintaining the redemptive line in the midst of human corruption.
Doctrines in This Chapter
God allows human development and skill even among those outside faithful devotion.
God continues His purposes even in the midst of human corruption.
God judges sin righteously and holds individuals accountable for their actions.
God provides warnings before judgment, offering opportunity for repentance.
Sin cannot be hidden from God, and guilt is exposed by His truth.
Cultural advancement is not equivalent to spiritual righteousness.
Each individual is responsible for their actions and cannot escape accountability.
God tempers judgment with restraint, preserving life even in the midst of punishment.
God preserves a line through which His purposes continue despite human rebellion.
Sin results in increasing distance from God's presence.
Sin is active, aggressive, and must be resisted or it will dominate.
Sin intensifies across generations, moving from murder to boastful violence.
Internal attitudes such as anger can lead to destructive actions if not addressed.
Sin escalates into harm toward others, breaking human relationships.
Violence leads to escalating consequences affecting both individuals and creation.
True worship is not merely external but reflects the heart and is subject to God's acceptance.
Reading Lenses
2 Imperatives
- Rule over sin rather than letting it rule over You
- Implicitly turn from anger and do what is right before God
Key Hebrew Terms
Sense Cain
Definition Cain
Why it matters Cain becomes the prototype of hardened, jealous rebellion, false response to divine warning, and violence against the righteous.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense Abel
Definition Abel
Why it matters Abel stands as the righteous worshiper whose acceptance before God and violent death shape an important canonical pattern later fulfilled and surpassed in Christ.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense offering, tribute
Definition offering, tribute
Why it matters The term places the brothers’ actions in the sphere of worship, showing that Genesis 4 is fundamentally concerned with approach to God, not merely agricultural versus pastoral occupations.
Sense regard, look favorably upon
Definition regard, look favorably upon
Why it matters God’s regard for Abel and His offering, and lack of regard for Cain and His offering, demonstrates divine moral discrimination in worship.
Sense burn, be angry
Definition burn, be angry
Why it matters Cain’s burning anger shows the inward heat of resentment that precedes murderous action.
Sense sin
Definition sin
Why it matters The personified image of sin crouching at the door presents sin as an active power seeking domination over the sinner.
Sense rule, master
Definition rule, master
Why it matters God’s warning that Cain must rule over sin underscores moral responsibility and the urgency of resisting sin’s mastery.
Sense kill, slay
Definition kill, slay
Why it matters Cain’s killing of Abel shows that sin against God quickly issues in violence against fellow image-bearers.
Sense blood
Definition blood
Why it matters Abel’s blood crying from the ground reveals that murder is a moral offense that calls forth divine justice.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense cursed
Definition cursed
Why it matters Cain comes under intensified curse in relation to the ground, showing the judicial consequence of bloodguilt.
Sense wander, be restless
Definition wander, be restless
Why it matters Cain’s sentence of restless wandering displays alienation, instability, and exile as features of judgment.
Sense sign, mark
Definition sign, mark
Why it matters The sign for Cain reflects divine restraint and protection even in the midst of deserved judgment.
Individual words בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ beshimkha lo qara'u · שֵׁם רָע shem ra · וְיָדְעוּ כִּי־אֲנִי יְהוָה wəyāḏəʿû kî-ʾănî YHWH
Sense call on the name of the LORD
Definition call on the name of the LORD
Why it matters This phrase marks the emergence of a public, worshiping identity among those preserved under God’s name and promise.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
Commentary (Keil & Delitzsch)
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
Warnings and Misreadings
- Genesis 4 warns that unchecked anger, distorted worship, and refusal to heed God’s warning allow sin to master the heart and spill over into violence and deeper rebellion.
- Treating God’s regard for Abel and not Cain as arbitrary, instead of recognizing the deeper issue of the worshiper’s heart and moral posture before God.
- Reducing Cain’s sin to momentary anger while ignoring the broader pattern of hardened rebellion, false worship, and refusal to submit to God’s warning.
- Reading the chapter as anti-culture, when the real issue is not city-building or craftsmanship themselves but culture developing under the shadow of violence and pride.
- Ignoring the significance of Abel as righteous and accepted before God, which later Scripture explicitly highlights.
- Missing the fact that Genesis 4 continues the seed conflict of Genesis 3 through family hostility and divergent lines.
- Reading the mark of Cain primarily as a curiosity rather than as an expression of divine restraint amid judgment.
Discipleship Questions
- Is Your worship merely outward, or is it joined to a heart that fears God and walks uprightly before Him?
- How do You respond when God exposes what is wrong in You, with repentance or resentment?
- Where is sin crouching near the door of Your life, seeking to master Your desires, thoughts, or speech?
- Are You nurturing jealousy, bitterness, or silent hostility toward someone made in God’s image?
- Does Your life reflect the line of Cain, self-driven and proud, or the line marked by calling on the name of the Lord?
Pastoral Applications
- Preach Genesis 4 to show that sin never remains contained within the individual heart but moves outward into worship, family life, and society.
- Use God’s warning to Cain to help people recognize temptation early, before inward anger matures into outward destruction.
- Teach that acceptable worship is not a bare ritual but must arise from a right heart posture before God.
- Address jealousy and resentment pastorally, showing that unrepented anger can become spiritually and relationally murderous.
- Help the church discern that outward cultural success and skill do not equal spiritual health or divine approval.
- Highlight the importance of a worshiping people who publicly call on the name of the Lord even in a violent and corrupt world.
- Connect Abel’s blood and Christ’s better blood to deepen gospel preaching and the doctrine of atonement.
Pastoral Trajectories
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Imperatives
2
Very high
Imperative Themes
- Rule over sin rather than letting it rule over You
- Implicitly turn from anger and do what is right before God
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
Genesis 4 advances covenant history by showing the conflict between lines, the persistence of sin after covenant breach, and the preservation of a worshiping people despite judgment. The chapter displays the outworking of Genesis 3:15 in embryonic form, as hostility, murder, and divergent human lines begin to appear. Cain’s line reflects rebellion and violence, while Seth’s line becomes associated with calling on the name of the Lord.
In this way the chapter contributes to the unfolding covenantal distinction between those who persist in defiant rebellion and those through whom God’s redemptive purpose continues.
Genesis 4 shows that the fall quickly spreads into worship, family, and society. The first brothers become a picture of divided humanity, one accepted before God and the other hardened in resentment, ending in murder. Sin is not passive; it crouches, seeks mastery, and destroys. Yet God continues to preserve life, restrain judgment, and maintain a line of worshipers.
Abel’s blood cries out for justice, but the gospel reveals one greater than Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks not only judgment against sin but mercy for sinners who repent and believe. The chapter therefore helps explain both the depth of human depravity and the necessity of a better righteous one whose blood brings reconciliation.
Focus Points
- Hamartiology
- Worship
- Judgment
- Human Violence
- Common Grace
- Seed-Line Conflict
- Divine Warning
- Preserving Mercy
- Theology Proper
- Anthropology
- Christology Preparation
- Worship Theology
- Covenant Theology
- Biblical Theology
Cross References
I will put hostility between You and the woman, and between Your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise Your head, and You will bruise His heel.”
Old Testament foundation
I will surely require accounting for Your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, His blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His own image.
Old Testament foundation
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Put Your trust in Yahweh.
Old Testament foundation
Keep Your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
Old Testament foundation
“What are the multitude of Your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. When You come to appear before me, who has required this at Your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an...
Old Testament foundation
That on You may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom You killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
Gospel resolution
From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell You, it will be required of this generation.
Gospel resolution
By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which He had testimony given to Him that He was righteous, God testifying with respect to His gifts; and through it He, being dead, still speaks.
Gospel resolution
To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
Gospel resolution
Unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed His brother. Why did He kill Him? Because His deeds were evil, and His brother’s righteous.
Gospel resolution
For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Gospel resolution
I will put hostility between You and the woman, and between Your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise Your head, and You will bruise His heel.” To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for Your husband, and He will rule over You.” To Adam He said, “Because You have...
Thematic parallel
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made Him in God’s likeness. He created them male and female, and blessed them. On the day they were created, He named them Adam. Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in His own likeness, after His image, and named Him Seth.
Thematic parallel
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. Yahweh was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things,...
Thematic parallel
Where do wars and fightings among You come from? Don’t they come from Your pleasures that war in Your members? You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because You don’t ask.
Thematic parallel
Passages
Chapter opening: Genesis 4:1-8
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:1-8 The propagation of the human race did not commence till after the expulsion from paradise. Generation in man is an act of personal free-will, not a blind impulse of nature, and rests upon a moral self-determination. It flows from the divine institution of marriage, and is therefore knowing (ידע) the wife. - At the birth of the first son Eve exclaimed with joy, “ I have gotten (קניתי) a man with Jehovah ;” wherefore the child received the name Cain (קין from קוּן = קנה, κτᾶσθαι).
So far as the grammar is concerned, the expression את־יהוה might be rendered, as in apposition to אישׁ, “ a man, the Lord ” ( Luther ), but the sense would not allow it. For even if we could suppose the faith of Eve in the promised conqueror of the serpent to have been sufficiently alive for this, the promise of God had not given her the slightest reason to expect that the promised seed would be of divine nature, and might be Jehovah , so as to lead her to believe that she had given birth to Jehovah now.
את is a preposition in the sense of helpful association, as in Gen 21:20; Gen 39:2, Gen 39:21, etc. That she sees in the birth of this son the commencement of the fulfilment of the promise, and thankfully acknowledges the divine help in this display of mercy, is evident from the name Jehovah , the God of salvation. The use of this name is significant. Although it cannot be supposed that Eve herself knew and uttered this name, since it was not till a later period that it was made known to man, and it really belongs to the Hebrew, which was not formed till after the division of tongues, yet it expresses the feeling of Eve on receiving this proof of the gracious help of God.
Gen 4:9-10 Defiance grows with sin, and punishment keeps pace with guilt. Adam and Eve fear before God, and acknowledge their sin; Cain boldly denies it, and in reply to the question, “ Where is Abel thy brother? ” declares, “ I know not, am I my brother’s keeper? ” God therefore charges him with his crime: “ What hast thou done! voice of thy brother’s blood crying to Me from the earth .
” The verb “ crying ” refers to the “ blood ,” since this is the principal word, and the voice merely expresses the adverbial idea of “aloud,” or “ listen ” ( Ewald , §317 d ). דּמים (drops of blood) is sometimes used to denote natural hemorrhage (Lev 12:4-5; Lev 20:18); but is chiefly applied to blood shed unnaturally, i. e. , to murder. “Innocent blood has no voice, it may be, that is discernible by human ears, but it has one that reaches God, as the cry of a wicked deed demanding vengeance” ( Delitzsch ).
Murder is one of the sins that cry to heaven. “ Primum ostendit Deus se de factis hominum cognoscere utcunque nullus queratur vel accuset; deinde sibi magis charam esse homonum vitam quam ut sanguinem innoxium impune effundi sinat; tertio curam sibi piorum esse non solum quamdiu vivunt sed etiam post mortem ” (Calvin). Abel was the first of the saints, whose blood is precious in the sight of God (Psa 116:15); and by virtue of his faith, he being dead yet speaketh through his blood which cried unto God (Heb 11:4).
Gen 4:9-10 Defiance grows with sin, and punishment keeps pace with guilt. Adam and Eve fear before God, and acknowledge their sin; Cain boldly denies it, and in reply to the question, “ Where is Abel thy brother? ” declares, “ I know not, am I my brother’s keeper? ” God therefore charges him with his crime: “ What hast thou done! voice of thy brother’s blood crying to Me from the earth .
” The verb “ crying ” refers to the “ blood ,” since this is the principal word, and the voice merely expresses the adverbial idea of “aloud,” or “ listen ” ( Ewald , §317 d ). דּמים (drops of blood) is sometimes used to denote natural hemorrhage (Lev 12:4-5; Lev 20:18); but is chiefly applied to blood shed unnaturally, i. e. , to murder. “Innocent blood has no voice, it may be, that is discernible by human ears, but it has one that reaches God, as the cry of a wicked deed demanding vengeance” ( Delitzsch ).
Murder is one of the sins that cry to heaven. “ Primum ostendit Deus se de factis hominum cognoscere utcunque nullus queratur vel accuset; deinde sibi magis charam esse homonum vitam quam ut sanguinem innoxium impune effundi sinat; tertio curam sibi piorum esse non solum quamdiu vivunt sed etiam post mortem ” (Calvin). Abel was the first of the saints, whose blood is precious in the sight of God (Psa 116:15); and by virtue of his faith, he being dead yet speaketh through his blood which cried unto God (Heb 11:4).
Gen 4:11-14 “ And now (sc. , because thou hast done this) be cursed from the earth . ” From: i. e. , either away from the earth, driven forth so that it shall no longer afford a quiet resting-place ( Gerlach , Delitzsch , etc.) , or out of the earth , through its withdrawing its strength, and thus securing the fulfilment of perpetual wandering ( Baumgarten , etc.)
It is difficult to choose between the two; but the clause, “ which hath opened her mouth ,” etc. seems rather to favour the latter. Because the earth has been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no produce; just as the land of Canaan is said to have spued out the Canaanites, on account of their abominations (Lev 18:28).
In any case, the idea that “the soil, through drinking innocent blood, became an accomplice in the sin of murder,” has no biblical support, and is not confirmed by Isa 26:21 or Num 35:33. The suffering of irrational creatures through the sin of man is very different from their participating in his sin. “ A fugitive and vagabond (ונד נע, i. e. , banished and homeless) shalt thou be in the earth .
” Cain is so affected by this curse, that his obduracy is turned into despair, “ My sin ,” he says in Gen 4:13, “ is greater than can be borne . ” עון נשׁא signifies to take away and bear sin or guilt, and is used with reference both to God and man. God takes guilt away by forgiving it (Exo 34:7); man carries it away and bears it, by enduring its punishment (cf.
Num 5:31). Luther , following the ancient versions, has adopted the first meaning; but the context sustains the second: for Cain afterwards complains, not of the greatness of the sin, but only of the severity of the punishment. “ Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid;... and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me .
” The adamah , from the face of which the curse of Jehovah had driven Cain, was Eden (cf. Gen 4:16), where he had carried on his agricultural pursuits, and where God had revealed His face, i. e. , His presence, to the men after their expulsion from the garden; so that henceforth Cain had to wander about upon the wide world, homeless and far from the presence of God, and was afraid lest any one who found him might slay him.
By “ every one that findeth me ” we are not to understand omnis creatura , as though Cain had excited the hostility of all creatures, but every man; not in the sense, however, of such as existed apart from the family of Adam, but such as were aware of his crime, and knew him to be a murderer. For Cain is evidently afraid of revenge on the part of relatives of the slain, that is to say, of descendants of Adam, who were either already in existence, or yet to be born.
Though Adam might not at this time have had “many grandsons and great-grandson,” yet according to Gen 4:17 and Gen 5:4, he had undoubtedly other children, who might increase in number, and sooner or later might avenge Abel’s death. For, that blood shed demands blood in return, “is a principle of equity written in the heart of every man; and that Cain should see that earth full of avengers is just like a murderer, who sees avenging spirits (Ἐρινύες) ready to torture him on every hand.
”
Gen 4:11-14 “ And now (sc. , because thou hast done this) be cursed from the earth . ” From: i. e. , either away from the earth, driven forth so that it shall no longer afford a quiet resting-place ( Gerlach , Delitzsch , etc.) , or out of the earth , through its withdrawing its strength, and thus securing the fulfilment of perpetual wandering ( Baumgarten , etc.)
It is difficult to choose between the two; but the clause, “ which hath opened her mouth ,” etc. seems rather to favour the latter. Because the earth has been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no produce; just as the land of Canaan is said to have spued out the Canaanites, on account of their abominations (Lev 18:28).
In any case, the idea that “the soil, through drinking innocent blood, became an accomplice in the sin of murder,” has no biblical support, and is not confirmed by Isa 26:21 or Num 35:33. The suffering of irrational creatures through the sin of man is very different from their participating in his sin. “ A fugitive and vagabond (ונד נע, i. e. , banished and homeless) shalt thou be in the earth .
” Cain is so affected by this curse, that his obduracy is turned into despair, “ My sin ,” he says in Gen 4:13, “ is greater than can be borne . ” עון נשׁא signifies to take away and bear sin or guilt, and is used with reference both to God and man. God takes guilt away by forgiving it (Exo 34:7); man carries it away and bears it, by enduring its punishment (cf.
Num 5:31). Luther , following the ancient versions, has adopted the first meaning; but the context sustains the second: for Cain afterwards complains, not of the greatness of the sin, but only of the severity of the punishment. “ Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid;... and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me .
” The adamah , from the face of which the curse of Jehovah had driven Cain, was Eden (cf. Gen 4:16), where he had carried on his agricultural pursuits, and where God had revealed His face, i. e. , His presence, to the men after their expulsion from the garden; so that henceforth Cain had to wander about upon the wide world, homeless and far from the presence of God, and was afraid lest any one who found him might slay him.
By “ every one that findeth me ” we are not to understand omnis creatura , as though Cain had excited the hostility of all creatures, but every man; not in the sense, however, of such as existed apart from the family of Adam, but such as were aware of his crime, and knew him to be a murderer. For Cain is evidently afraid of revenge on the part of relatives of the slain, that is to say, of descendants of Adam, who were either already in existence, or yet to be born.
Though Adam might not at this time have had “many grandsons and great-grandson,” yet according to Gen 4:17 and Gen 5:4, he had undoubtedly other children, who might increase in number, and sooner or later might avenge Abel’s death. For, that blood shed demands blood in return, “is a principle of equity written in the heart of every man; and that Cain should see that earth full of avengers is just like a murderer, who sees avenging spirits (Ἐρινύες) ready to torture him on every hand.
”
Gen 4:11-14 “ And now (sc. , because thou hast done this) be cursed from the earth . ” From: i. e. , either away from the earth, driven forth so that it shall no longer afford a quiet resting-place ( Gerlach , Delitzsch , etc.) , or out of the earth , through its withdrawing its strength, and thus securing the fulfilment of perpetual wandering ( Baumgarten , etc.)
It is difficult to choose between the two; but the clause, “ which hath opened her mouth ,” etc. seems rather to favour the latter. Because the earth has been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no produce; just as the land of Canaan is said to have spued out the Canaanites, on account of their abominations (Lev 18:28).
In any case, the idea that “the soil, through drinking innocent blood, became an accomplice in the sin of murder,” has no biblical support, and is not confirmed by Isa 26:21 or Num 35:33. The suffering of irrational creatures through the sin of man is very different from their participating in his sin. “ A fugitive and vagabond (ונד נע, i. e. , banished and homeless) shalt thou be in the earth .
” Cain is so affected by this curse, that his obduracy is turned into despair, “ My sin ,” he says in Gen 4:13, “ is greater than can be borne . ” עון נשׁא signifies to take away and bear sin or guilt, and is used with reference both to God and man. God takes guilt away by forgiving it (Exo 34:7); man carries it away and bears it, by enduring its punishment (cf.
Num 5:31). Luther , following the ancient versions, has adopted the first meaning; but the context sustains the second: for Cain afterwards complains, not of the greatness of the sin, but only of the severity of the punishment. “ Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid;... and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me .
” The adamah , from the face of which the curse of Jehovah had driven Cain, was Eden (cf. Gen 4:16), where he had carried on his agricultural pursuits, and where God had revealed His face, i. e. , His presence, to the men after their expulsion from the garden; so that henceforth Cain had to wander about upon the wide world, homeless and far from the presence of God, and was afraid lest any one who found him might slay him.
By “ every one that findeth me ” we are not to understand omnis creatura , as though Cain had excited the hostility of all creatures, but every man; not in the sense, however, of such as existed apart from the family of Adam, but such as were aware of his crime, and knew him to be a murderer. For Cain is evidently afraid of revenge on the part of relatives of the slain, that is to say, of descendants of Adam, who were either already in existence, or yet to be born.
Though Adam might not at this time have had “many grandsons and great-grandson,” yet according to Gen 4:17 and Gen 5:4, he had undoubtedly other children, who might increase in number, and sooner or later might avenge Abel’s death. For, that blood shed demands blood in return, “is a principle of equity written in the heart of every man; and that Cain should see that earth full of avengers is just like a murderer, who sees avenging spirits (Ἐρινύες) ready to torture him on every hand.
”
Gen 4:11-14 “ And now (sc. , because thou hast done this) be cursed from the earth . ” From: i. e. , either away from the earth, driven forth so that it shall no longer afford a quiet resting-place ( Gerlach , Delitzsch , etc.) , or out of the earth , through its withdrawing its strength, and thus securing the fulfilment of perpetual wandering ( Baumgarten , etc.)
It is difficult to choose between the two; but the clause, “ which hath opened her mouth ,” etc. seems rather to favour the latter. Because the earth has been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no produce; just as the land of Canaan is said to have spued out the Canaanites, on account of their abominations (Lev 18:28).
In any case, the idea that “the soil, through drinking innocent blood, became an accomplice in the sin of murder,” has no biblical support, and is not confirmed by Isa 26:21 or Num 35:33. The suffering of irrational creatures through the sin of man is very different from their participating in his sin. “ A fugitive and vagabond (ונד נע, i. e. , banished and homeless) shalt thou be in the earth .
” Cain is so affected by this curse, that his obduracy is turned into despair, “ My sin ,” he says in Gen 4:13, “ is greater than can be borne . ” עון נשׁא signifies to take away and bear sin or guilt, and is used with reference both to God and man. God takes guilt away by forgiving it (Exo 34:7); man carries it away and bears it, by enduring its punishment (cf.
Num 5:31). Luther , following the ancient versions, has adopted the first meaning; but the context sustains the second: for Cain afterwards complains, not of the greatness of the sin, but only of the severity of the punishment. “ Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid;... and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me .
” The adamah , from the face of which the curse of Jehovah had driven Cain, was Eden (cf. Gen 4:16), where he had carried on his agricultural pursuits, and where God had revealed His face, i. e. , His presence, to the men after their expulsion from the garden; so that henceforth Cain had to wander about upon the wide world, homeless and far from the presence of God, and was afraid lest any one who found him might slay him.
By “ every one that findeth me ” we are not to understand omnis creatura , as though Cain had excited the hostility of all creatures, but every man; not in the sense, however, of such as existed apart from the family of Adam, but such as were aware of his crime, and knew him to be a murderer. For Cain is evidently afraid of revenge on the part of relatives of the slain, that is to say, of descendants of Adam, who were either already in existence, or yet to be born.
Though Adam might not at this time have had “many grandsons and great-grandson,” yet according to Gen 4:17 and Gen 5:4, he had undoubtedly other children, who might increase in number, and sooner or later might avenge Abel’s death. For, that blood shed demands blood in return, “is a principle of equity written in the heart of every man; and that Cain should see that earth full of avengers is just like a murderer, who sees avenging spirits (Ἐρινύες) ready to torture him on every hand.
”
Gen 4:15 Although Cain expressed not penitence, but fear of punishment, God displayed His long-suffering and gave him the promise, “ Therefore (לכן not in the sense of כן לא, but because it was the case, and there was reason for his complaint) whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold . ” קין כּל־הרג, is cas . absolut . as in Gen 9:6; and הקּם avenged, i.
e. , resented, punished, as Exo 21:20-21. The mark which God put upon Cain is not to be regarded as a mark upon his body, as the Rabbins and others supposed, but as a certain sign which protected him from vengeance, though of what kind it is impossible to determine. God granted him continuance of life, not because banishment from the place of God’s presence was the greatest possible punishment, or because the preservation of the human race required at that time that the lives of individuals should be spared, - for God afterwards destroyed the whole human race, with the exception of one family, - but partly because the tares were to grow with the wheat, and sin develop itself to its utmost extent, partly also because from the very first God determined to take punishment into His own hands, and protect human life from the passion and wilfulness of human vengeance.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:16-24 The family of the Cainites . - Gen 4:16. The geographical situation of the land of Nod , in the front of Eden (קדמת, see Gen 2:14), where Cain settled after his departure from the place or the land of the revealed presence of God (cf. Jon 1:3), cannot be determined. The name Nod denotes a land of flight and banishment, in contrast with Eden, the land of delight, where Jehovah walked with men.
There Cain knew his wife. 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 genus, and that it was not till after the rise of several families that the bands of fraternal and conjugal love became distinct from one another, and assumed fixed and mutually exclusive forms, the violation of which is sin.
(Comp. Lev 18.) His son he named Hanoch (consecration), because he regarded his birth as a pledge of the renovation of his life. For this reason he also gave the same name to the city which he built, inasmuch as its erection was another phase in the development of his family. The construction of a city by Cain will cease to surprise us, if we consider that at the commencement of its erection, centuries had already passed since the creation of man, and Cain’s descendants may by this time have increased considerably in numbers; also, that עיר does not necessarily presuppose a large town, but simply an enclosed space with fortified dwellings, in contradistinction to the isolated tents of shepherds; and lastly, that the words בנה ויהי, “he was building,” merely indicate the commencement and progress of the building, but not its termination.
It appears more surprising that Cain, who was to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth, should have established himself in the land of Nod. This cannot be fully explained, either on the ground that he carried on the pursuits of agriculture, which lead to settled abodes, or that he strove against the curse. In addition to both the facts referred to, there is also the circumstance, that the curse, “the ground shall not yield to thee her strength,” was so mollified by the grace of God, that Cain and his descendants were enabled to obtain sufficient food in the land of his settlement, though it was by dint of hard work and strenuous effort; unless, indeed, we follow Luther and understand the curse, that he should be a fugitive upon the earth, as relating to his expulsion from Eden, and his removal ad incertum locum et opus, non addita ulla vel promissione vel mandato, sicut avis quae in libero caelo incerta vagatur .
The fact that Cain undertook the erection of a city, is also significant. Even if we do not regard this city as “the first foundation-stone of the kingdom of the world, in which the spirit of the beast bears sway,” we cannot fail to detect the desire to neutralize the curse of banishment, and create for his family a point of unity, as a compensation for the loss of unity in fellowship with God, as well as the inclination of the family of Cain for that which was earthly.
The powerful development of the worldly mind and of ungodliness among the Cainites was openly displayed in Lamech, in the sixth generation. Of the intermediate links, the names only are given. (On the use of the passive with the accusative of the object in the clause “ to Hanoch was born (they bore) Irad ,” see Ges. §143, 1.) Some of these names resemble those of the Sethite genealogy, viz.
, Irad and Jared, Mehujael and Mahalaleel, Methusael and Methuselah, also Cain and Cainan; and the names Enoch and Lamech occur in both families. But neither the recurrence of similar names, nor even of the same names, warrants the conclusion that the two genealogical tables are simply different forms of one primary legend. For the names, though similar in sound, are very different in meaning.
Irad probably signifies the townsman, Jared , descent, or that which has descended; Mehujael , smitten of God, and Mahalaleel , praise of God; Methusael , man of prayer, and Methuselah, man of the sword or of increase. The repetition of the two names Enoch and Lamech even loses all significance, when we consider the different places which they occupy in the respective lines, and observe also that in the case of these very names, the more precise descriptions which are given so thoroughly establish the difference of character in the two individuals, as to preclude the possibility of their being the same, not to mention the fact, that in the later history the same names frequently occur in totally different families; e.
g. , Korah in the families of Levi (Exo 6:21) and Esau (Gen 36:5); Hanoch in those of Reuben (Gen 46:9) and Midian (Gen 25:4); Kenaz in those of Judah (Num 32:12) and Esau (Gen 36:11). The identity and similarity of names can prove nothing more than that the two branches of the human race did not keep entirely apart from each other; a fact established by their subsequently intermarrying.
- Lamech took two wives, and thus was the first to prepare the way for polygamy, by which the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. The names of the women are indicative of sensual attractions: Adah , the adorned; and Zillah , either the shady or the tinkling. His three sons are the authors of inventions which show how the mind and efforts of the Cainites were directed towards the beautifying and perfecting of the earthly life.
Jabal (probably = jebul , produce) became the father of such as dwelt in tents , i. e. , of nomads who lived in tents and with their flocks, getting their living by a pastoral occupation, and possibly also introducing the use of animal food, in disregard of the divine command (Gen 1:29). Jubal (sound), the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe, i. e.
, the inventors of stringed and wind instruments. כּנּור a guitar or harp; עוּגב the shepherd’s reed or bagpipe. Tubal-Cain , “ hammering all kinds of cutting things (the verb is to be construed as neuter) in brass and iron ;” the inventor therefore of all kinds of edge-tools for working in metals: so that Cain, from קין to forge, is probably to be regarded as the surname which Tubal received on account of his inventions.
The meaning of Tubal is obscure; for the Persian Tupal , iron- scoria , can throw no light upon it, as it must be a much later word. The allusion to the sister of Tubal-Cain is evidently to be attributed to her name, Naamah , the lovely, or graceful, since it reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites. In the arts, which owed their origin to Lamech’s sons, this disposition reached its culminating point; and it appears in the form of pride and defiant arrogance in the song in which Lamech celebrates the inventions of Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:23, Gen 4:24): “ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: Men I slay for my wound, and young men for my stripes.
For sevenfold is Cain avenged, and Lamech seven and seventy-fold . ” The perfect הרגתּי is expressive not of a deed accomplished, but of confident assurance ( Ges. §126, 4; Ewald , §135 c ); and the suffixes in חבּרתי and פּצעי are to be taken in a passive sense. The idea is this: whoever inflicts a wound or stripe on me, whether man or youth, I will put to death; and for every injury done to my person, I will take ten times more vengeance than that with which God promised to avenge the murder of my ancestor Cain.
In this song, which contains in its rhythm, its strophic arrangement of the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz. , its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch ). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family.
They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
Gen 4:25-26 The character of the ungodly family of Cainites was now fully developed in Lamech and his children. The history, therefore, turns from them, to indicate briefly the origin of the godly race. After Abel’s death a third son was born to Adam, to whom his mother gave the name of Seth (שׁת, from שׁית, a present participle, the appointed one, the compensation); “ for ,” she said, “ God hath appointed me another seed (descendant) for Abel, because Cain slew him .
” The words “because Cain slew him” are not to be regarded as an explanatory supplement, but as the words of Eve; and כּי by virtue of the previous תּחת is to be understood in the sense of כּי תּחת. What Cain ( human wickedness) took from her, that has Elohim ( divine omnipotence) restored. Because of this antithesis she calls the giver Elohim instead of Jehovah , and not because her hopes had been sadly depressed by her painful experience in connection with the first-born.