Genesis 4:17 - 26

IV.                 Cain’s Posterity (Genesis 4:17-24)

Appendix 20, Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger – The Posterity of Cain: It is important to note that the posterity of Cain comes in the First Toledoth, that of “the generations of the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 2:4 – 4:26); and not in “the book of the generations of Adam” (Genesis 5:1 – 6).

Note: What you are going to see in Cain’s posterity is different than the other genealogies in Genesis in that years of life are not given only occupations in some instances (notice nothing agricultural) similar names to those in Seth’s posterity. What is the significance? Possibly showing how the things of God are copied by the things of Satan.  Additionally, up to Lamech we see only one offspring each, unlike the next chapter where the text states specifically that Adam and his posterity had other sons and daughters.  Should we assume that without this phrase (begat sons and daughters) that the posterity is limited to the individual named?  It seems like not assuming such would indicate a discrepancy in writing style, or is it merely non-essential information hence not provided.

A.    Genesis 4:17 – And Cain knew his wife and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

1.     God told Cain he would “shift and stray” yet what is he doing here? Building a city.   Is this another act of defiance? An attempt to create a wall of safety?

a.      Compare Cain’s response to that of David when the Lord told him Not to build Him a temple:

·       II Samuel 7:20-21 – And what can David say more unto Thee? For Thou, Lord God, knowest Thy servant.  For Thy word’s sake, and according to Thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make Thy servant know them.

·       David later went on to gather the materials needed to build the temple of the Lord

·       How is David’s response different than that of Cain? David obeyed, Cain disobeyed

2.     builded - בנה banah to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue, Leupold says “was engaged in building”

·       but did he ever finish? Text does not say

3.     Enoch – חנוך Chanowk, teaching or initiation, dedicated.  As we will see in chapter 5 this is the same name as the 7^th from Adam who “walked with God”.

4.     Here we have “teaching or initiation” of “the way of Cain” (Jude 11) vs., the “teaching/initiation” or prophesying the Word of the Lord (Jude 14-15).  We can begin to see the 2 paths splitting, one is genuine the other  a distortion (though the distortion may or may not precede the genuine in terms of linear time).

5.     These are the last actions of Cain, no information on how long he lived, or his cause of death (the same with his posterity)

B.    Genesis 4:18 – And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

1.     Irad – עירד `Iyrad (proper masculine noun), fleet of witness

2.     Mehujael - מחויאל Mĕchuwya'el (proper masculine noun), smitten by God

3.     Methusael - מתושאל Mĕthuwsha'el(proper masculine noun), who is of God.

4.     Lamech - למך Lemek (propermasculine noun) powerful

5.     Notice that we have no indication of how long each of these men lived or when they were born with respect to the age of their father.

C.    Genesis 4:19 – And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

1.     First polygamist:

a.      Adah - עדה `Adah(proper feminine noun) ornament

b.     Zillah - צלה Tsillah, (proper feminine noun) shade

D.    Genesis 4:20 – And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.

1.     Jabal - יבל Yabal flowing or stream of water

·       Rancher

E.     Genesis 4:21 – And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all  such as handle the harp and organ.

1.     Jubal – יובל Yuwbal stream,  joyful sound

·       First musician

F.     Genesis 4:22 – And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

1.     Tubal-cain - תובל קין Tuwbal Qayin (proper masculine noun) thou will be brought of Cain

·       Metallurgist – worker of brass (65% copper, 35% zinc) and iron, brass and iron most likely used for tools, weaponry and armor.

2.     Naamah -  נעמה Na`amah (proper feminine noun) loveliness, first female mentioned with ancestry mentioned (other than Eve)

G.    Genesis 4:23 – And Lamech said unto his wives “Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: For I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

1.     Parallelism, Synonymous or Gradational – This is when the lines are parallel in thought, and in the use of synonymous words.  The oldest example, and the first in the Bible, is Genesis 4:23, 24. – In these oldest human poetic lines Lamech celebrates the invention of weapons of war: and it is significant that this should be the first subject of poetry! Lamech’s son was “an instructor of every artificier in brass and iron,” and the injury of others was the earliest application of the art.

Lamech is so elated with that which would give him power among men that he at once breaks out in eulogy; and boasts that if anyone injures him, he would outdo even Jehovah in His punishment of those who should injure Cain. 

Figures of Speech, 5. Repetition of Subjects, p. 350,  E.W. Bullinger

                             

More accurately read:

Adah and Zillah hearken to my voice;

Ye wives of Lamech listen to my speech.

For I can slay a man, if he injures me

And a young man, if he hurts me

If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold,

Truly Lamech [shall be avenged] seventy-seven fold

 

H.    Genesis 4:24 – If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”

1.     Notice God is silent to this declaration from Lamech

2.     Sounds similar to another biblical character

·       I Samuel 17:4-9 – And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.  And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.  And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.  And the staff of his spear was like the weaver’s beam; and his spears head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.  And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, “Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants of Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.  If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.”

-        Goliath is arrayed with brass and iron weaponry, he puts his faith and trust on the things made of man.  Just like Lamech, he is boasting of his power to kill.  Notice who comes out against him

·       I Samuel 17:38-39 – And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head; he also armed him with a coat of mail.  And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it.  And David said unto Saul, “I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them.” And David put them off of him.

-        David rejected the things that man puts his faith in and chose to place his faith in the Lord God.

·       I Samuel 17:45 – Then David said to the Philistine, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

-        I think we know how this turned out!                    

V.               Adam’s Posterity (Genesis 4:25 – 26 Continued in Chapter 5)

A.    Genesis 4:25 – And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: “For God,” said she, “hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

1.     Seth – Substituted

2.     Notice Seth is substituted for Abel, so somewhere between 4:1 and here Eve realized that Cain was not the seed promised in 3:15, but rather Abel. 

B.    Genesis 4:26 – And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

1.     Enos – אנוש 'Enowsh (proper masculine noun) man, frail, incurable

a.      Remember the enosh אנוש 'enowsh, is one of the 4 Hebrew words translated to the English word man with regard to his infirmities, and incurable character

2.     Reading this in English it appears to be an act of submission to God; however, what it actually means is that men began to call other gods by the name of Lord or began to profanely call upon the name of the Lord.  According to Bullinger most of the ancient commentators supply the Ellipsis by the words “their gods”; suggesting that they called the stars and idols their gods, and worshipped them. 

a.      Targum of Jonathan – That was the generation in whose days they begun to err, and to make themselves idols, and surnamed their idols by the Name of the Word of the Lord.

b.     If we take the KJV to mean what it says in English as face value, what was the “ungodliness” that Enoch prophesied about in Jude 14-15?

c.      Began - חלל chalal (verb, primitive root) – to bore, to wound, to dissolve, to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one’s word), to begin (as if by an “opening wedge”)