Cain and Abel
4
📚And Adam knew 📖 Eve his wife, and she conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man by the help of the LORD”. 2 📚And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground.3 📚And in process of time it came about that Cain brought an offering 📖 to the LORD from the fruit of the ground. 4 📚And Abel also brought an offering, of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering, 5 📚but did not have regard for Cain and for his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 📚And the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? and why is your face downcast? 7 📚If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin 📖 lies at the door. And its desire is for you, and you should rule over it”.
8 📚And Cain talked with his brother Abel, and it came about when they were in the field, that Cain attacked Abel his brother, and killed him.
4:8 How quickly sin showed its violent and deadly character! Compare 1 John 3:12-15; Ps 38:20; Prov 29:10; Matt 23:35.⚜
9 📚And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
4:9 Cain shows his lying, loveless and arrogant nature.⚜
10 📚And he said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 📚And now you are cursed 📖 from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 📚When you cultivate the ground, from now on it will not yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth”.
13 📚And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 📚Look, today you have driven me out from the face of the ground, and I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. And it will come about that anyone who finds me will kill me”.
15 📚And the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain will have sevenfold vengeance taken on him”. And the LORD set a mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him. 16 📚And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD 📖, and lived in the land of Nod 📖, to the east of Eden.
17 📚And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
4:17 Where did Cain get his wife? When Seth was born to Adam and Eve, Adam was 130 (Gen 5:3), and could have had a great many sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters and their offspring (Gen 1:28). These are not all named in the Bible because God had no purpose in doing so. Cain married one of Adam’s descendants.⚜
18 📚And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech.
The character of Cain’s descendants
19 📚And Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 📚And Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents, and of those who have cattle. 21 📚And his brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. 22 📚As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, a forger of every kind of tool in 📖 bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
23 📚And Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
listen to my speech,
For I have killed a man
for wounding me,
And a young man for hurting me.
24 📚If Cain will be avenged sevenfold,
then Lamech seventy times
sevenfold”.
4:18-24 These verses give the line of ungodly Cain. We see its character in the boast of Lamech who gloried in revenge and murder. How different must be the behavior of God’s people. Notes at Ex 21:23-25; Num 31:2. Observe also that the evil of polygamy first appears in this godless line. Note at Gen 30:1.⚜
25 📚And Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and called his name Seth, “For God”, she said, “has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, whom Cain killed”.
4:25 Seth in Hebrew means granted or given.⚜
26 📚And also a son was born to Seth, and he called his name Enos. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD 📖.