_A.M. 2. B.C. 4003._ In this chapter we have both the world and the church in Adam's family, and a specimen of the character and state of both in all ages; the children of God and the children of the wicked one, being represented in Cain and Abel: and we have an early instance of the enmity between... [ Continue Reading ]
Adam and Eve had many _sons and daughters, Genesis 5:4_: but Cain and Abel seem to have been the two eldest. Cain signifies _possession;_ for Eve, when she bare him, said, with joy, and thankfulness, and expectation, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Abel signifies _vanity._ The name given to thi... [ Continue Reading ]
_In process of time_ After many years, when they were both grown up to man's estate; at some set time, Cain and Abel brought to Adam, as the priest of the family, each of them an offering to the Lord; for which we have reason to think there was a divine appointment given to Adam, as a token of God's... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord God had respect to Abel and to his offering_ And showed his acceptance of it, probably by fire from heaven; but to _Cain and his offering he had not respect._ We are sure there was a good reason for this difference: that the Governor of the world, though an absolute sovereign, doth not... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cain was very wroth_ Full of rage against God and his brother. _His countenance fell_ His looks became sour, dejected, and angry. _The Lord said unto Cain_ to convince him of his sin, and bring him to repentance, _Why art thou wroth?_ What cause has been given thee, either by me or thy brother? _If... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cain talked with Abel his brother_ Either familiarly or friendly, as he used to do, with a view to make him secure and careless, or by way of expostulation and contention. The Chaldee paraphrast adds, that Cain, when they were in discourse, maintained there was no judgment to come, and that when Ab... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where is Abel thy brother?_ Not that God was ignorant where he was, but he asks him that he might convince him of his crime, and bring him to a confession of it; for those that would be justified before God, must accuse themselves. _And he said, I know not_ Thus in Cain, the devil was both a murder... [ Continue Reading ]
_What hast thou done?_ Thou thinkest to conceal it; but the evidence against thee is clear and incontestable: _the voice of thy brother's blood crieth from the ground_ He speaks as if the blood itself were both witness and prosecutor, because God's own knowledge testified against him, and God's own... [ Continue Reading ]
_And now art thou cursed_ 1st, Separated to all evil, laid under the wrath of God, as it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and _unrighteousness of men._ 2d, He is cursed _from the earth._ Thence the cry came up to God, thence the curse came up to _Cain._ God could have taken vengeance... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cain said, My punishment_ (Hebrews _my sin_) _is greater than I can bear_ Sin, however, seems to be put for punishment, as it is Genesis 4:7, and in many other places. For Cain was not so sensible of his sin, as of the miserable effects of it, as appears from the next verse, where, to justify his c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whosoever slayeth Cain_, &c. God having said, in Cain's case, _Vengeance is mine, I will repay_, it had been a daring usurpation for any man to take the sword out of God's hand. _And the Lord set a mark upon Cain_ To distinguish him from the rest of mankind. What the mark was, God has not told us:... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt on the east of Eden_ Somewhere distant from the place where Adam and his religions family resided: distinguishing himself and his accursed generation from the holy seed; _in the land of Nod_ That is, of _shaking_ or _trembling_, because of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lamech took two wives_ It was one of the degenerate race of Cain who first transgressed the original law of marriage, that _two only should be one flesh_, and introduced a custom which still subsists in many parts of the world. Christ fully laid open the iniquity of this practice, and restored marr... [ Continue Reading ]
_He_ (Jabal) _was the father of such as dwell in tents_ That is, he taught shepherds to dwell in them, and to remove them from place to place for conveniency of pasture. The first authors of any thing are commonly called its _fathers._... [ Continue Reading ]
_The harp and organ_ The word rendered _organ_ here means a _lovely instrument;_ but what kind of an instrument this was, the Jews themselves do not know. This _Jubal_ was the inventor of such musical instruments, and of music itself. Genesis 4:23. This passage is extremely obscure. We have no infor... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse we find the first mention of Adam in the story of this chapter. No question, the murder of Abel, and the impenitency and apostacy of Cain, were a very great grief to him and Eve and the more because their own _wickedness_ did now _correct them, and their backsliding did reprove them._... [ Continue Reading ]
_And to Seth was born_ a son called _Enos_, which is the general name for all men, and speaks the weakness, frailty, and misery of man's state. _Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord_ Doubtless God's name was called upon before: but now, 1st, The worshippers of God began to do more in rel... [ Continue Reading ]