Gen. 4:1. "And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord." In Eve's expressing herself thus, it is probable she had an eye to what God said, that her seed should bruise the serpent's head: and now seeing she had a son, her faith and hope was str... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:3, 4. _Cain's and Abel's sacrifice. _ Abel when he comes before God is sensible of his own unworthiness and sinfulness, like the publican, and so is sensible of his need of an atonement, and therefore comes with bloody sacrifices, hereby testifying his faith in the promised great sacrifices.... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:7. "If thou doest well, shalt not thou be accepted; and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." Cain was not accepted in his offering, because he did not well - because, 1. He was a wicked man, led an ill life under the reigning power of the world and the flesh, and therefore his sacr... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:14. It seems to me no way improbable that Cain's house was intended, and by him understood, not only of him personally, but of his posterity. Such he might learn from his father Adam, seeing the covenant that was made with him was made not only for himself, but for his posterity. If Cain unde... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:23, 24. "And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, here my voice, ye wives of Lamech,… I have slain a man," etc. The probable design of the Holy Spirit in relating this, is to show the great increase of the depravity and corruption of the world of Cain's posterity, and those that adher... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:25. "Hath appointed _me_," etc. Eve does not say, God hath appointed _us_ another seed, but hath appointed _me._ She speaks of Abel and Seth, the righteous children of Adam and Eve, as _her _ seed; and so the Church, or generation of the righteous which was to proceed from Seth, she calls _he... [ Continue Reading ]
Gen. 4:26. "And to Seth, to him also," etc. The right translation probably is, "Then began men to call by the name of the Lord," or "in the name of the Lord," - _i.e., _ then they began to call themselves and their children by or in His name, signifying that then the people of God, - of whom Seth wa... [ Continue Reading ]