Genesis 4

Ge 4:1-26.

BIRTH OF

CAIN AND

ABEL.

1. Eve said, I have gotten a man from the Lord--that is, "by the

help of the Lord"--an expression of pious gratitude--and she called him

Cain, that is, "a possession," as if valued above everything else;

while the arrival of another son reminding Eve of the misery she had

entailed on her offspring, led to the name Abel, that is, either

weakness, vanity

(Ps 39:5),

or grief, lamentation. Cain and Abel were probably twins; and it is

thought that, at this early period, children were born in pairs

(Ge 5:4)

[CALVIN].

2. Abel was a keeper of sheep--literally, "a feeder of a flock,"

which, in Oriental countries, always includes goats as well as sheep.

Abel, though the younger, is mentioned first, probably on account of

the pre-eminence of his religious character.

3. in process of time--Hebrew, "at the end of days,"

probably on the Sabbath.

brought . . . an offering unto the Lord--Both

manifested, by the very act of offering, their faith in the being of

God and in His claims to their reverence and worship; and had the kind

of offering been left to themselves, what more natural than that the

one should bring "of the fruits of the ground," and that the other

should bring "of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof"

[Ge 4:4].

4. the Lord had respect unto Abel, not unto Cain, &c.--The

words, "had respect to," signify in Hebrew,--"to look at any

thing with a keen earnest glance," which has been translated, "kindle

into a fire," so that the divine approval of Abel's offering was shown

in its being consumed by fire (see

Ge 15:17;

Jud 13:20).

7. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?--A better

rendering is, "Shalt thou not have the excellency"? which is the true

sense of the words referring to the high privileges and authority

belonging to the first-born in patriarchal times.

sin lieth at the door--sin, that is, a sin offering--a common

meaning of the word in Scripture (as in

Ho 4:8;

2Co 5:21;

Heb 9:28).

The purport of the divine rebuke to Cain was this, "Why art thou angry,

as if unjustly treated? If thou doest well (that is, wert innocent and

sinless) a thank offering would have been accepted as a token of thy

dependence as a creature. But as thou doest not well (that is, art a

sinner), a sin offering is necessary, by bringing which thou wouldest

have met with acceptance and retained the honors of thy birthright."

This language implies that previous instructions had been given as to

the mode of worship; Abel offered through faith

(Heb 11:4).

unto thee shall be his desire--The high distinction conferred by

priority of birth is described

(Ge 27:29);

and it was Cain's conviction, that this honor had been withdrawn from

him, by the rejection of his sacrifice, and conferred on his younger

brother--hence the secret flame of jealousy, which kindled into a

settled hatred and fell revenge.

8. And Cain talked with Abel his brother--Under the guise of

brotherly familiarity, he concealed his premeditated purpose till a

convenient time and place occurred for the murder

(1Jo 3:12;

Jude 11).

9. I know not--a falsehood. One sin leads to another.

10. the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me--Cain, to

lull suspicion, had probably been engaging in the solemnities of

religion when he was challenged directly from the Shekinah itself.

11, 12. now art thou cursed from the earth--a curse superadded

to the general one denounced on the ground for Adam's sin.

12. a fugitive--condemned to perpetual exile; a degraded

outcast; the miserable victim of an accusing conscience.

13, 14. And Cain said . . . My punishment is greater than

I can bear--What an overwhelming sense of misery; but no sign of

penitence, nor cry for pardon.

14. every one that findeth me shall slay me--This shows that the

population of the world was now considerably increased.

15. whosoever slayeth Cain--By a special act of divine

forbearance, the life of Cain was to be spared in the then small

state of the human race.

set a mark--not any visible mark or brand on his forehead, but

some sign or token of assurance that his life would be

preserved. This sign is thought by the best writers to have been a wild

ferocity of aspect that rendered him an object of universal horror and

avoidance.

16. presence of the Lord--the appointed place of worship at

Eden. Leaving it, he not only severed himself from his relatives but

forsook the ordinances of religion, probably casting off all fear of

God from his eyes so that the last end of this man is worse than the

first

(Mt 12:45).

land of Nod--of flight or exile--thought by many to have been

Arabia-Petræa--which was cursed to sterility on his account.

17-22. builded a city--It has been in cities that the human race

has ever made the greatest social progress; and several of Cain's

descendants distinguished themselves by their inventive genius in the

arts.

19. Lamech took unto him two wives--This is the first

transgression of the law of marriage on record, and the practice of

polygamy, like all other breaches of God's institutions, has been a

fruitful source of corruption and misery.

23, 24. Lamech said unto his wives--This speech is in a poetical

form, probably the fragment of an old poem, transmitted to the time of

Moses. It seems to indicate that Lamech had slain a man in

self-defense, and its drift is to assure his wives, by the preservation

of Cain, that an unintentional homicide, as he was, could be in

no danger.

26. men began to call upon the name of the Lord--rather, by the

name of the Lord. God's people, a name probably applied to them in

contempt by the world.