And the crowd goes wild for Cain’s genealogy! I know, I know. This is the part of Scripture you read really fast during the devotions or skip altogether. Most people don’t get much spiritual vigor from the genealogies. But they are important and often times there are gems you don’t see without a little research.
It will be my goal through Volume 2 to give you some insight into these genealogies. They have their purpose in Scripture and in Ancient Near Eastern culture. They signify things about a family line. This will not be any different.
As we take a deep dive into Cain’s genealogy, realize that God doesn’t waste paper. Genealogies they show up for a reason. Think about your family tree. About your relatives. Many of us don’t think much about it when we are young.
But when we are older, we take interest in those we have grown up around and grown up with. We want to know about where we came from and what kind of family we have. Often, God is making a point. Let’s see what Cain’s genealogy has to say about his family, and about Seth’s family.
Cain’s Wife?
Genesis 4:17-18: Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and called the city’s name Enoch. And to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.
I’ll start with the question I have, and everyone asks me. Where in the world did Cain’s wife come from? I thought there were only four people living on the earth. Let’s count them. Adam, Eve, Cain, and Seth. So where did Cain’s wife come from?
Great question. I don’t know. Okay, I have an educated guess. We need to consider a couple of things to understand where she comes from. We don’t have to do biblical gymnastics. The rabbis believed Isaiah referred to a woman named Lilith and explain her as a rebel who refused to submit to Adam. God made Eve in her place. You can check out more about Lilith here.
People who suggest Lilith was a reality explain other humans living on the earth with her. I’m not going that route. We have an easy answer to explain Cain’s wife. It is not made explicit until Genesis 5:4. Moses tells us at the beginning of Adam’s genealogy that “he had other sons and daughters.”
It is a unnatural for us to believe that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel, Seth, and no daughters in between. Unfortunately for us, the Bible rarely mentions the birth of daughters unless it is extremely important to the narrative. It is likely Adam and Eve had daughters either after or in between Cain, Abel, and Seth.
So, if you are following me, you immediately have an ethical issue. I’m claiming Cain married one of his sisters. Yes. That is what I claim. That is all that makes sense. Your issue is, “But Pastor Jonathan, what about incest?” Another good question.
Let me put it to you this way. Incest is not viewed as a sin until Moses introduces the law to Israel later in Exodus and Leviticus. It was not taboo or gross until then. Much of the law of Moses was God teaching Israel to live differently than the nations around them. Where the nations would do abominable things like incest, God called His people to live differently than them.
It’s still gross to you, right? Me too, but we are looking at the beginning of creation with the eyes of people who are thousands of years later. We have had these laws in place since the times of Moses. The bloodline of humanity is not corrupt so that incest creates genetic mutations and difficulties yet.
I didn’t mention it when we talked about the mark of Cain earlier but Cain is afraid that someone will come upon him and kill him. If Adam and Eve did not have other children between Cain, Abel, and Seth, Cain should not be afraid of anyone. The underlying statement of what Cain says shows that there are other people on the earth and Cain is aware of them.
So, this answers both of our questions. Though the Bible does not specifically mention every child Adam and Eve have, they have other children and those children are intermarried and intermingling.
The Bible doesn’t tell us about everything that happens. Also, we don’t know how many years happen between births, how many children Adam and Eve have, let alone their children and their descendants.
One other Scripture I did not go into enough information in is the name Adam gives his wife, Eve. She is the mother of all the living. He gives her this name before she bears Seth. I suggest that all the living are descendants they already have before Seth is born.
There are other people living on the earth that are all related to Adam and Eve. Their children are “filling the earth and multiplying.” This was the command God gave to Adam and Eve, and surely they pass this command on to their children.
Incest is not morally wrong at the time of Adam and Eve and afterward. It is not until the law of Moses that this becomes an issue for Israel, an issue of purity and separateness from the nations around them who are still violating God’s moral law given to Moses. Incest is also not an issue scientifically, causing birth defects because the line is still pure genetically.
Although we have a problem with this today, it is only because we put our morals and genetics, and any other problem we have with incest today into the text back then. If it was a problem, God would have dealt with it. And yes, that means we are all related and our genealogies go the whole way back to Adam. You see this throughout the Bible.
It is obvious for Cain and his descendants. If you look at Jesus’s genealogy in Matthew and Luke, both Matthew and Luke take the descendants back to Adam or somewhere connected in Adams genealogical line.
We’ll get to it at the end of Volume 3, but the breaking up of people into nations makes this seem like less of a big deal because humans are spread out at that point. But genetically, we all go back to Adam and Eve.
Genesis 4:17 says that Cain knew his wife. The word “knew” in Hebrew can refer to sexual relations. That is what it means here. It more commonly refers to simply knowing a person either factually or experientially. Experiencing a friendship or familial relationship with a person all falls under “to know” in Hebrew.
It is obvious it means to have sexual relations here because the word is used between Cain and his wife in a marriage. The context further tells us she became pregnant and had a child. Cain’s wife both conceives and bears a child. These two verbs make a difference between the active conception and carrying the child to pregnancy and bearing the child.
This shows that though the curse was in place to make bearing a child painful, it does not mean that there were issues with pregnancies such as not carrying them to term for any number of reasons.
They named this child Enoch (and yes, there is an Enoch in Seth’s line also), whose name means “initiated, teacher, dedicated, consecrated.” You will find as we continue to study together that names can often signify the character of a person’s life. However, if a person is mentioned in the genealogy with no further comments the name does not matter as much. I’m giving you meanings of names in case you’re interested.
We will notice a distinction between Cain’s line and Seth’s line. For one, there are technological advances from the people in Cain’s line. Enoch is the first to build a city. He names the city after himself. Why is it interesting that he built the city? Why do we take a break from the genealogy to hear this annotation?
My best suggestion, which I will remind you of when we get to Babel, is that God commanded Adam and Eve and their descendants to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Cities are places where humans gather. They are not necessarily God’s will for humanity at this early stage.
I point this out because we will see a recurring theme throughout Cain’s line. Wickedness begins with Cain and continues through his line. What his descendents do, especially when annotated in a genealogy, is pointed out because it is either good or bad. In his case, it is bad.
I may also point out my observation that Enoch is a narcissist. Just saying. Next in Cain’s genealogy we have Irad (“city of witness, while donkey”). Nothing is said about him except that he fathered Mehujael (“ destroyed by God, struck by God, God is combating, blotted out by God”) who fathered Methushael (“Man who is of God, asking for death, they died inquiring, they died who are of God”) who fathered Lamech (“Powerful, destroyer, one who overthrows, a strong young man, who is stuck or reduced”).
Here we have another break in Cain’s genealogy. The genealogy annotates information about Lamech, so pay attention to the meaning of his name. This will be important information and will show more of the wickedness of Cain’s line.
Lamech’s Story and Song in Cain’s Genealogy
Genesis 4:19-24: Now Lamech took to himself two wives. The name of the first was Adah and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those dwelling in tents and have livestock. And his brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all who take hold of the lyre and pipe. And Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain. He was the forager of all bronze and iron devices. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Namah. Then Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, listen to my saying, for I have killed a man who wounded me, a young man for striking me. For if Cain be avenged sevenfold, Lamech be avenged seventy-sevenfold.”
Lamech’s name is important because it characterizes the kind of man he is. When Cain’s genealogy stops to tell his story, it is because he does something never done before, just like Enoch.
Remember that Lamech means “Powerful, destroyer, one who overthrows, a strong young man, who is stuck or reduced.” I think we can single out the top three. As we read his story we will see these top three names characterizes his life and deeds.
He certainly is one who overthrows God’s standard. He’s the first person in history to takes two wives instead of one. Just like Cain, he overthrows the system. Having multiple wives becomes an issue throughout the Old Testament.
At no time does God condone having multiple spouses. In fact, if you read the stories of people who take more than one wife you will see that in some way the Bible shows this is not God’s best.
The wives’ names are Adah (“Ornament, to adorn, beauty, pleasure”) and Zillah (“Shadow, shade, shadow of darkness or protection”). Let’s finish Cain’s genealogy before we talk about Lamech.
Adah bears Jabal (“To lead, flowing river, to bring, to carry”). We have another break in Cain’s genealogy, so it will give us more information about Jabal. He is the father of, or the one who began, dwelling in tents and taking care of livestock. Livestock here refers to more than just cattle. It is a number of animals a person can make a living from.
His name is significant because he is one who takes care of livestock, so he is aptly named. The one who is a leader, who carries animals, and is a flowing river to provide for the animals has a good name.
How is what Jabal does evil? Not every person in Cain’s genealogy will be doing something evil. I can’t see anything wrong with this because it becomes a regular occurrence in Abraham’s story and later. If anything, it is positive because the life of a nomad and tent dweller is one that is constantly on the move. This is not the same as Cain’s curse to be a wanderer.
Adah bears another son in Cain’s genealogy and calls his name Jubul (“Joyful sound, music, Jubilee, ram’s horn or trumpet”) Jadal’s brother. There is another break with his name. He is the father of, or the one who began, playing musical instruments like the lyre and pipe.
This does not mean he played evil music. It seems Cain’s genealogy stops for these two sons to show how apt their names were chosen for them based on what they did in their life.
Zillah bore Tubal-Cain (“Increase of the race of Cain, production, forged work”), who was the father of metallurgy and foraging of metals like bronze and iron. I have four observations about Tubal-Cain.
First, his name perfectly resembled his life’s work, to create forging of metals. Second, this does not mean forging metals was evil. We find these inventions of music, metals, and nomadic life throughout the rest of the Old Testament.
Third, we have understood there can be separate stages of development in technology, such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. But here, we see him working with both bronze and iron. As a believer and biblical scholar, I accept this account over what scientists think happened long ago. You can disagree with me if you wish.
Finally, the way you choose to use metallurgy can be good or evil. You can use it to make utensils and equipment like plows (another possibility for the word I translated “devices”). You can also make’s words and weapons of warfare to hurt people.
For the first tlime in Cain’s genealogy, we have the name of a daughter and sister, Namah. The significance here is that she is mentioned in the genealogy.
We have already said Lamech breaks the mold by having two wives. But that is not all he does. We pick up his story again in Genesis 4:23. Scholars note that this poetic song is a boast about what he has done. Consider it a taunt challenging anyone who would mess with him.
The song has some Hebrew parallel lines. The first set of five in the first line gives the names of his wives while the second line calls them “wives of Lamech.” The first line also has “hear my voice” and the second line has a variation of “listen to my saying.”
The second set of the song has similar words for “man” in the first line and “young man” in the second line. The first line has “wounded me” while the second line has “striking me.”
The third set mentions Cain in the first line while the second line mentions Lamech. The first line says sevenfold while the second line says seventy-sevenfold. I have tried to highlight these differences in each part of the poem below.
A Adah and Zillah, hear my voice,
A1 wives of Lamech, listen to my saying,
B for I have killed a man who wounded me,
B1 a young man for striking me.
C For if Cain be avenged sevenfold, most bad
C1 Lamech be avenged seventy-sevenfold.
Cain killed his brother Abel but did not boast about it. He tried to hide it from the Lord. Lamech killed a man who was his relative and boasted about it. The evil is beginning to get worse and it will get worse as we go on.
There’s a clear distinction between the wickedness of Cain’s line and the godliness of Seth’s line as we will see here at the end of Genesis 4 and throughout the genealogy of Adam through Seth in chapter 5. Here is a visual representation of Cain’s genealogy.
Cain’s genealogy has seven generations in it. A couple of the names (Enoch and Lamech) are repeated in each genealogy. But these two men could not be more different. Let’s see what’s happening with Adam and Eve while this is going on with Cain’s genealogy.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch…
Genesis 4:25-26: Now Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son, and she called his name Seth, for “God has appointed for me another child in Abel’s place because Cain killed him.” And to Seth was also born a son and he called his name Enosh. At that time, people begin to call on the name of the Lord.
We are finished with Cain’s genealogy, but I want to finish out this chapter by beginning to talk about Seth’s lineage. You will notice a big change as we go through it. I will make a comparison of both lineages in Genesis 4 at the end.
I called this “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch” because Cain and his family are going down on route while Adam’s line going through Seth is going down another route. Probably between the sons Eve has are other children but the ones significant to the biblical account are listed in these genealogies.
Seth begins a new genealogical line to replace his brother Abel. First, Seth’s name means “Appointed, compensation, substitution, to replace.” Eve saw him as a replacement for Abel. That’s exactly what she says about him at his birth.
I have to wonder if she is holding a grudge against Cain for killing Abel. She has to mention that Cain killed her son Abel instead of just saying Seth would replace Abel. Moses gives us some of Seth’s genealogy to end this chapter.
Seth has a son and names him Enosh, and his name means “frailty, feeble, mortal.” I don’t think we can assign any significance to his name. If anything, perhaps Seth was reminded of how frail life is and how Abel lost his life to Cain. But we cannot infer that from just his name showing up at the end of the chapter.
A Tale of Two Lamech’s
We are just getting started, but I wanted to point out that two names in Cain’s genealogy appear in Seth’s genealogy. I will talk about this in our next issue again, but I wanted to give you a taste of how different these families are.
While one Lamech in Cain’s genealogy commits the same offense Cain does and begins with more than one wife, the Lamech in Seth’s genealogy will bear a son named Noah out of the hope that he would bring relief from the toil of the ground in the curse (Genesis 5:28-29).
Cain’s genealogy and Seth’s genealogy could not be more different. One descended into chaos and wickedness while the other sought hope from God. Seth began a line that would call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). Amid the increasing wickedness of the world would be a remnant of godly people who would continue to seek the Lord.
Although I am making a break between Genesis 4 and 5, we should think of a soft landing here, almost artificial because Moses will present the genealogical record of Adam going through Seth’s line. Moses begins talking about Seth’s line but will come back to it to finish it out for us.
The Saga Continues…
I hope I made biblical genealogies a little more interesting for you. We looked at Cain’s genealogy and found the type of character his family has. We will discover some gems as we look at Seth’s genealogy in our next issue. I will attempt to make it interesting for you also.
