Genesis 4:20

_AND ADAH BARE JABAL: HE WAS THE FATHER OF SUCH AS DWELL IN TENTS, AND OF SUCH AS HAVE CATTLE._ Jabal the father of such as dwell in tents, and ... have cattle. Jabal means "flowing". The Hebrew х_ MIQNEH_ (H4735)] properly denotes possession, property, but always of cattle, in which alone the wealth of nomadic people consists. The word is strictly used only of sheep, goats, and neat cattle, excluding animals of burden (Gesenius). Thus, though born in a city, and bred in a settled state of society, he cultivated migratory habits, and as, from the land surrounding the city being laid under cultivation, but being comparatively sterile, (Genesis 4:12), a more extensive portion would be required for the support of the population, he was obliged to travel to a distance in quest of pastures. Necessity would compel him to remove from

20._Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents_. Moses now relates that, with the evils which proceeded from the family of Cain, some good had been blended. For the invention of arts, and of other things which serve to the common use and convenience of life, is a gift of God by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation. It is truly wonderful, that this race, which had most deeply fallen from integrity, should have excelled the rest of the posterity of Adam in rare endowments. (251) I, however, understand Moses to have spoken expressly concerning these arts, as having been invented in the family of Cain, for the purpose of showing that he was not so accursed by the Lord but that he would still scatter some excellent gifts among his posterity; for it is probable, that the genius of others was in the meantime not inactive; but that there were, among the sons of A...

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 4:20. _JABAL - WAS THE FATHER_] The _inventor_ or _teacher_, for so the word is understood, 1 Samuel 10:12. He was the first who invented tent-making, and the breeding and managing of cattle; or he was, in these respects, the most eminent in that time. Though Abel was a shepherd, it is not likely he was such on an extensive scale....

- 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 ADAH BARE JABAL,.... According to Hillerus m, this name, and Jubal and Tubal, after mentioned, all signify a river; why Lamech should call all his sons by names signifying the same thing, is not easy to say. HE WAS THE FATHER OF SUCH AS DWELT IN TENTS, AND [OF SUCH AS HAVE] CATTLE: not in a proper sense the father of them, though his posterity might succeed him in the same business; but he was the first author and inventor of tents or movable habitations, which could be carried from place to place, for the convenience of pasturage for cattle: he was not the first that had cattle in his possession, or that first fed and kept them, for Abel, the son of Adam, was a keeper of sheep; but he was the first that found out the use of tents, and the pitching of them to abide in at proper places, so long as the pasturage lasted, and then to remove elsewhere; as we find in later times the patri...

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

JABAL. flowing. AND. the Figure of speech _Zeugma._ (App-6.) Supplied here by the italics....