Genesis 4:19

_AND LAMECH TOOK UNTO HIM TWO WIVES: THE NAME OF THE ONE WAS ADAH, AND THE NAME OF THE OTHER ZILLAH._ Lamech took unto him two wives. The irreligious and sensual character of the Cainites reached its acme in the time and person of Lamech, who is the first polygamist on record, and whether from his bold innovation on the primitive institution of marriage, which produced the most demoralizing effects on the antediluvian world, or from his being the ancestor of a family which acquired so great renown by its inventive talents, he is the only descendant of Cain of whom any memorials have been preserved. ADAH - beauty, ornament. ZILLAH - a shadow. These two names indicate the position of these women as first and secondary wife. Moveover, they mark the introduction of a new era, when other qualities were looked for in the female companions of men than those on which the mind of Adam was co...

19._And Lamech took unto him two wives_. We have here the origin of polygamy in a perverse and degenerate race; and the first author of it, a cruel man, destitute of all humanity. Whether he had been impelled by an immoderate desire of augmenting his own family, as proud and ambitious men are wont to be, or by mere lust, it is of little consequence to determine; because, in either way he violated the sacred law of marriage, which had been delivered by God. For God had determined, that “the two should be one flesh,” and that is the perpetual order of nature. Lamech, with brutal contempt of God, corrupts nature’s laws. The Lord, therefore, willed that the corruption of lawful marriage should proceed from the house of Cain, and from the person of Lamech, in order that polygamists might be ashamed of the example....

19-24 One of Cain's wicked race is the first recorded, as having broken the law of marriage. Hitherto, one man had but one wife at a time; but Lamech took two. Wordly things, are the only things that carnal, wicked people set their hearts upon, and are most clever and industrious about. So it was with this race of Cain. Here was a father of shepherds, and a father of musicians, but not a father of the faithful. Here is one to teach about brass and iron, but none to teach the good knowledge of the Lord: here are devices how to be rich, and how to be mighty, and how to be merry; but nothing of God, of his fear and service. Present things fill the heads of most. Lamech had enemies, whom he had provoked. He draws a comparison betwixt himself and his ancestor Cain; and flatters himself that he is much less criminal. He seems to abuse the patience of God in sparing Cain, into an encouragement...

Verse Genesis 4:19. _LAMECH TOOK - TWO WIVES_] He was the first who dared to reverse the order of God by introducing polygamy; and from him it has been _retained_, practised, and defended to the present day....

- XIX. The Line of Cain 17. חניך _ch__e__nôk_, Chanok, “initiation, instruction.” 18. עירד _‛__ı̂yrād_, ‘Irad, “fleet as the wild ass, citizen.” מחוּיאל _m__e__chûya'el_, Mechujael, “smitten of ‘El, or life of ‘El.” מתוּשׁאל _m__e__tûshā'ēl_, Methushael, “man of ‘El, or man asked.” למך _lāmek_, Lemek, “man of prayer, youth.” 19. עדה _'ādâh_, ‘Adah, “

EXPOSITION GENESIS 4:17 Domiciled in Nod, whither, impelled by woman's love, his wife had accompanied him, the unhappy fugitive began to seek, if not to find, relief from the gnawing agonies of remorse in the endearments of conjugal felicity and the occupations of secular industry. AND CAIN KNEW HIS WIFE. Who must have been his sister, and married before the death of Abel, as "after that event it can scarcely be supposed, that any woman would be willing to connect herself with such a miserable fratricide" (Bush). Though afterwards forbidden, the tendency of Divine legislation on the subject of marriage being always in the direction of enlarging rather than restricting the circle of prohibited relationships, the union of brothers and sisters at the first was clearly indispensable, if the race was to multiply outwards from a common stock. ...

AND LAMECH TOOK UNTO HIM TWO WIVES,.... He was the first we read of that introduced polygamy, contrary to the first institution of marriage, whereby only one man and one woman were to be joined together, and become one flesh, Genesis 2:24. This evil practice, though it began in the race of wicked Cain, was in later ages followed by some among the people of God, which was connived at because of the hardness of their hearts; otherwise it was not so from the beginning. This was the first instance of it known; Jarchi says it was the way of the generation before the flood to have one wife for procreation of children, and the other for carnal pleasure; the latter drank a cup of sterility, that she might be barren, and was adorned as a bride, and lived deliciously; and the other was used roughly, and mourned like a widow; but by this instance it does not appear, for these both bore children to...

CHAPTER 4 After the Fall and the Two Seeds _ 1. Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1)_ 2. Their offerings (Genesis 4:3) 3. The divine remonstrance (Genesis 4:6) 4. Abel slain by his brother (Genesis 4:8) 5. Cain's judgment (Genesis 4:9) 6. Cain and his offspring and the progress of the world (Genesis 4:17) 7. Seth in place of Abel (Genesis 4:25)...

Cainite and Sethite Genealogies. Genesis 4:17 probably belongs to the earliest stratum of J, in which the progress of civilisation is not interrupted by the Flood, and the human race is derived from Adam through Cain. When the story of the Deluge was added and the race of Cain was believed to have been exterminated in the Flood, a Sethite genealogy was required. Only a fragment (Genesis 4:25 f) of this is given from J, the redactor having omitted the rest since it was given with dates by P (5). The Sethite table is modelled on the Cainite, for several of the names recur in the same or a slightly altered form. While P gives a bare list, J adds interesting details. This section, moreover, does not belong to the same stratum of J as the story of Cain and Abel. In the latter, Cain is a homeless wanderer in the de

TWO. The first polygamist....