Genesis 4:24

_IF CAIN SHALL BE AVENGED SEVENFOLD, TRULY LAMECH SEVENTY AND SEVENFOLD._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

24._Cain shall be avenged sevenfold_. It is not my intention to relate the ravings or the dreams of every writer, nor would I have the reader to expect this from me; here and there I allude to them, though sparingly, especially if there be any color of deception; that readers, being often admonished, may learn to take heed unto themselves. Therefore, with respect to this passages which has been variously tortured, I will not record what one or another may have delivered, but will content myself with a true exposition of it. God had intended that Cain should be a horrible example to warn others against the commission of murder; and for this end had marked him with a shameful stigma. Yet lest any one should imitate his crime, He declared whosoever killed him should be punished with sevenfold severity. Lamech, impiously perverting this divine declaration, mocks its severity; for he hence ta...

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...

- 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. ...

IF CAIN SHALL BE AVENGED SEVENFOLD, TRULY LAMECH SEVENTY AND SEVENFOLD. Which if understood of him as confessing and lamenting his sin of murder, the sense is, if Cain was so severely punished for killing one man, of how much sorer punishment am I deserving, and shall have, who have killed two persons, and that after I had seen the punishment of Cain, and yet took no warning by it? or if he that killed Cain, who slew his brother, was to be avenged sevenfold, or to seven generations, then how much more, or longer, shall he be avenged, that shall slay me, who have slain none, or however not designedly; and therefore you may be easy and quiet, your fears, either from God or man, are groundless....

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

LAMECH. Supply _Ellipsis_ (App-6), "shall he avenged"....

The Descendants of Cain: The Genealogy of the Cainites. (J.) See the Special Note on "the Antediluvian Patriarchs," see below. The traditions preserved in this section probably belong to a different J source from that of the verses immediately preceding. This will explain how it is that Cain, who has just been condemned to a nomad life and has withdrawn into the land of "Wandering" (Nod), is in Genesis 4:17 described as the founder of a city, and as the ancestor of men who originated the industries and callings of civilization. NOTE ON THE ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS According to chap. 5 (P), the interval of time between the work of Creation (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4 a) and the visitation of the Flood ...