Today I have included excerpts from David Guzik's teaching on this section of Genesis. Again, none of the commentary below is mine.
The Descendants of Cain
17a Cain had sexual relations with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.
(Cain obviously married his sister. Though marrying a sister was against the law of God according to Leviticus 18:9, 18:11, 20:17, and Deuteronomy 27:22 (which even prohibits the marrying of a half-sister), this was long before God spoke that law to Moses and the world.
Even Abraham married his half-sister Sarah (Genesis 20:12). God did not prohibit such marriages until the time of Moses (Leviticus 18:9). Marrying a brother or sister was not forbidden until God forbade it.
Here, necessity demanded that Adam’s sons marry his daughters. And at this point, the gene pool of humanity was pure enough to allow close marriage without harm of inbreeding. But as a stream can get more polluted the further it flows from the source, there came a time when God decreed there no longer be marriage between close relatives because of the danger of inbreeding.)
17b Then Cain founded a city, which he named Enoch, after his son.
(Here we see the beginning of industry and of urbanization. From this beginning, it was strongly man-centered, not God-centered. The fall of the human race continued and even increased.)
18 Enoch had a son named Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.
(The name Lamech may mean, conqueror. He was the seventh from Adam on Cain’s side. Lamech's arrogance is a contrast to Enoch, who was the seventh from Adam on Seth’s line.)
19 Lamech married two women. The first was named Adah, and the second was Zillah.
(Lamech was the first bigamist in history, going against God’s original plan for one man and one woman to become one flesh.)
20 Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the first of those who raise livestock and live in tents. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal, the first of all who play the harp and flute. 22a Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, gave birth to a son named Tubal-cain. He became an expert in forging tools of bronze and iron.
(The picture is one of rapid advancement. Succeeding generations quickly made progress in areas such as the founding of a city, home building, music and the arts and metalworking.)
22b Tubal-cain had a sister named Naamah.
(The names of his wives and daughter show the emphasis in his heart: Adah means, “pleasure, ornament, or beauty.” Zillah means, “shade” probably referring to a luxurious covering of hair. His daughter’s name was Naamah, which means, “loveliness.” Lamech’s culture was committed to physical and outward beauty.)
23 One day Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; listen to me, you wives of Lamech. I have killed a man who attacked me, a young man who wounded me. 24 If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times, then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!”
(The way Lamech boasted about his murder of another, and the way he believed he could promise a greater retribution than God, shows a progressive degeneracy among humanity. Things quickly became worse with the human race, a true devolution.
This is all a representation of humanism, a man-centered perspective. The city was Cain’s city; the focus of Lamech was his beautiful wives and his own perceived strength. But for all of Lamech’s boasting, neither he nor his descendants are ever heard of again in the Bible. He came to nothing.)
Blessings, Cecilia
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