Genesis 4:1

Cain … gotten Heb. ḳanah, to get. The word "Cain" does not mean "gotten"; but Eve's joyful utterance gives a popular etymology, which derived the proper name from the verb whose pronunciation it resembled. The word "Cain" (Ḳayin) means in Hebrew "a lance"; and by some the name is interpreted to mean "a smith." Its relation to Tubal-Cain "the artificer" is doubtful (see Genesis 4:24). That the name is to be identified with that of the nomad tribe of the "Kenites" (cf. Numbers 24:22; Judges 4:11) is a view which has been strongly maintained by some scholars. But the evidence seems to be very slight. The Kenites were not traditionally hostile to Israel, and did not play any important part in the history of the people so far as is known. The fact that the name appears in another form, "Kenan," in the genealogy (chap. Genesis 5:9-14) should warn us against hasty identifications. Pronunciation notoriously suffers through transmission, and spelling of proper names is wont to be adapted to the sound of more familiar words.

Eve gives her child its name as in Genesis 4:24. It has been pointed out that elsewhere, where the mother is mentioned in J and E, she gives the name, cf. Genesis 29:32-35; Genesis 30:1-24 (but see Genesis 4:26; Genesis 5:29; Genesis 25:25); whereas, in P, the father gives the name, cf. Genesis 21:3. That the mother should name the child, has been considered to be a survival of a primitive "matriarchal" phase of society: see note on Genesis 2:24. But the inference is very doubtful.

I have gotten a man withthe help of the Lord Literally, "I acquired (or, have acquired) man, even Jahveh." Eve's four words in the Hebrew (ḳânîthi îsh eth-Yahveh) are as obscure as any oracle.

(i) The difficulty was felt at a very early time, and is reflected in the versions LXX διὰ τοῦ θεοῦ, Lat. per Deum, in which, as R.V., the particle êthis rendered as a preposition in the sense of "in conjunction with," and so "with the help of," "by the means of."

König, who holds an eminent position both as a commentator and as a Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer, has recently strongly defended the rendering of êthas a preposition meaning "with," in the sense here given by the English version "with the help of" (see Z.A.T.W.1912, Pt i, pp. 22 ff.). The words will then express the thanksgiving of Eve on her safe deliverance of a child. It is a pledge of Divine favour. Child-birth has been "with the help of the Lord."

(ii) The Targum of Onkelos reads mê-êth= "from" (instead of êth= "with"), and so gets rid of the difficulty: "I have gotten a man from Jehovah," i.e. as a gift from the Lord. But this is so easy an alteration that it looks like a correction, and can scarcely be regarded as the original text. Praestat lectio difficilior.

(iii) According to the traditional Patristic and mediaeval interpretation, the sentence admitted of a literal rendering in a Messianic sense: "I have gotten a man, even Jehovah," i.e. "In the birth of a child I have gotten one in whom I foresee the Incarnation of the Lord." But, apart from the inadmissibility of this N.T. thought, it is surely impossible that the Messianic hope should thus be associated with the name of Cain. The Targum of Palestine, however, has "I have acquired a man, the Angel of the Lord."

(iv) Another direction of thought is given by the proposed alternative rendering: "I obtained as a husband (i.e. in my husband) Jehovah," in other words, I discern that in marriage is a Divine Gift. Perhaps the Targum of Palestine meant this, "I obtained as a husband the Angel of the Lord": my husband is the expression to me of the Divine good-will which I have received. The objection, however, to this interpretation is that it is the reverse of simple and natural. It makes Eve's words go back to marriage relations, instead of to the birth of her child.

(v) Conjectural emendations have been numerous, and ingenious. Thus, at one time, Gunkel conjectured ethavvehfor eth-Yahveh, i.e. "I have gotten a son that I longed for"; the unusual word ethavvehaccounted, in his opinion, for the easier reading eth-Yahveh. But in his last edition (1908) the conjecture does not appear.