11 And now art thou cursed thee her strength: A fugitive and from the earth, which hath open- a vagabond shalt thou be in the ed her mouth to receive thy broth-earth. er's blood from thy hand. 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto murder and its consequent guilt, and the habitual perpetrators of this crime are called by the Psalmist, Ps. 5. 7, men of bloods.' This is probably its import here. The original for crieth is in the plural agreeing with bloods-' are crying' -an idiom of peculiar emphasis, which cannot well be transferred into English. In allusion to and by way of contrast to this blood of Abel demanding vengeance, it is said, Heb. 12. 24, that the blood of Christ speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, i. e. cries for pardon. 11. Cursed from the earth. Heb. ground. That is, in regard to the ground; as far as the ground is concerned. That ground which had drank the blood of a murdered brother was to become an instrument of inflicting the merited punishment upon the guilty fratricide. Nature herself is here represented as setting her face against one who had violated the most sacred of human ties. The earth is made to harden her bosom against the cruel wretch, who could so far conquer every fraternal feeling as to shed the blood of an unoffending brother. The precise manner in which this part of the sentence was to be carried into effect is described in the ensuing verse. 12. It shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. Heb. 'it shall not add to yield.' A further explanation of the curse denounced above. The earth, as a general rule, was designed to afford its occupants sustenance and settlement. But both these are in great measure here denied to Cain. The ordinary amount of labour would not suffice to procure the ordinary returns from the 13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. cultivated soil. A curse superadded to the original one denounced for Adam's offence should cause the earth comparatively to withhold its increase; and not only so it should, in a sense, deny him a permanent abode. thenceforth to become a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, condemned to perpetual disgrace and reproach among men. He was Instead of dwelling in peace among his own family and kindred, he was to be banished from their society, and compelled to withdraw to some distant and lonely part of the earth, as a wretched outcast abhorred and rejected of all his kind. To this were to be added the stings of a guilty conscience, the perpetual disquietude and horror that would not fail to haunt the breast of the first murderer. Yet even in this severe sentence there was a mixture of mercy, inasmuch as he was not immediately cut off but had space given him to repent; for God is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear. Heb. 7 my iniquity, my sin. But we have elsewhere remarked (ch. 19. 15,) that the original for sin is often used but as another term for the punishment of sin, and such is perhaps the true rendering here. Yet it may be remarked that the Heb. will admit the rendering, 'My sin is greater than can be forgiven,' as if it were the exclamation of one who was just sinking in despair. This mode of speech, it appears, is still common in the East. person committed a great crime; he will go to the offended individual and piteously plead for mercy, and at intervals keep crying, 'Ah, my guilt is too great 'Has a 15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him," seven-fold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill 14 Behold, thou hast driven | me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. him. k Job 15. 20--24. 1 Ps. 51. 11. m ch. 9. 6. Num. 35. 19, 21, 27. n Ps. 79. 12. o Ezek. 9. 4, 6. which I have hitherto inhabited and cultivated. The original is not the word usually rendered earth (7), but a term of narrower import frequently implying tilled or improved ground (a), as in v. 11. It is evident that it cannot mean earth in its largest sense, for in that he was to be a fugitive and vagabond. From thy face shall I be hid. That is, from the place where thy presence is most peculiarly mani to be forgiven. My hopes are gone.'' Roberts. On the whole, however, the former is, we think, the correct interpretation, and yet we know not that it is necessarily to be understood as a crimination of the sentence of the Judge. We take it rather as the voluntary acknowledgment and recital of the overwhelming yet deserved misery which he had brought upon himself by his murderous act. As human nature is constituted, we see not how the in-fested, from the visible symbols of thy ward insuppressible voice of conscience glory, and so from converse and comcould have failed to respond to the sen- munion with thee. See on v. 16.—T tence uttered against him, and if it did Every one that findeth me shall slay me, so respond, it is scarcely conceivable Will attempt to slay me, will be promptthat these words were those of remon-ed to do it. Mr. Roberts remarks that strance. They were rather a natural modern usages of speech among the exclamation in view of the fearful consequences of his guilt of which he had now become sensible, and which he goes on to specify at length in the ensuing verse. Whether there was any thing of the working of penitence in his confession, does not appear from the text. The probability is that it was the prompting of remorse rather than of godly sorrow, and so was merely equivalent to the extorted confession of Judas, Mat. 27. 4, 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' 14. Thou hast driven me out this day. He now proceeds to specify the circumstances which conspired to make his doom so intolerable; and so well assured is he of the execution of the sentence, that he speaks of it as already accomplished. From the face of the earth. Heb. 'from the face of the ground.' That is, from that region Orientals illustrate this language of Cain. 'Has a man escaped from prison; the people say, 'Ah, all men will catch and bring that fellow back.' Has a man committed murder; 'Ah, all men will kill that murderer.' This means, the feeling will be universal; all will desire to have that individual punished.' The question may here be asked whom, besides his father and mother, Cain had to fear? To this it may be answered, that as the death of Abel probably occurred somewhat upwards of a hundred years from the creation, ch. 5. 5, and Adamn had many sons and daughters besides those here mentioned, ch. 5. 4, the population of the earth might at this time have increased to many hundreds or even thousands of souls. was by no means the object of the sacred writer to give a full account of all Adam's It 16 And Cain P went out from | dwelt in the land of Nod, on the the presence of the LORD, and east of Eden. p 2 Kings 13. 23. & 24. 20. Jer 23. 39. & 52. 3. children and their descendants, but to narrate more especially the history of that line of his posterity from which the promised seed was to spring. was suffered to live in order to be a warning to others of the direful effects of giving way to malignant passions, and as a living monument of the power of a guilty conscience. God is not obliged to send a sinner to the place of the damned in order to punish him. He can any where call his name Magor-missabib and render him a terror to himself and all about him.' Fuller. To something of this kind the Psalmist probably alludes Ps. 59. 11, Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power.' Heb. 'make them to wander as fugitives,' as did Cain. The divine forbearance moreover, by thus prolonging his life graciously afforded him space for repentance. 16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Heb. 'from before the face of Jehovah.' That is, from the place of God's special presence, from the seat of his worship, from the hab itation of his Shekinah, from the society of his father and family, and consequently from the only church which God then had upon earth. It was therefore a virtual excommunication from the highest religious privileges which could then be enjoyed; for the contra 15. Therefore. That is, in order to prevent this, I announce to thee that whosoever slayeth thee, 'vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold,' i. e. he shall be far more severely punished than Cain himself. Seven-fold is equivalent to many-fold, a definite for an indefinite mode of speech, as often elsewhere, Lev. 26. 28. Ps. 12. 7. God having virtually said to Cain, 'vengeance is mine, I will repay, it would have been a daring usurpation for any one to have taken the sword out of his hand, and such an act as he would cause to be avenged seven-fold. The Lord also set a mark upon Cain. Or, Heb. 'the Lord appointed a sign to Cain.' The original word here employed ( oth) often signifies a sign, token, or memorial by which something is confirmed or brought to remembrance. Thus Is. 7. 10, The Lord spake unto Ahaz saying, Ask thee a sign (78) of the Lord thy God.' So also v. 14, 'Therefore the Lord thy God shall give you a sign ().' Jud. 6. 17, 'If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign (8) that thou talk-ry of this, viz. to come into God's pres est with me.' The sign here said to be appointed to Cain is undoubtedly to be understood in the same manner. It was some kind of notification to him, perhaps by a sensible miracle, of the truth of the promise respecting his personal safety. Accordingly it is well rendered in the Greek, 'God set a sign before Cain to persuade him that whosoever should find him should not kill hini.' As to its being a visible mark, brand, or stigma affixed to his person, there is no ground whatever for such an opinion. It would seem that Cain ence, or before his face, to dwell in his courts, is spoken of as the chief of all blessings and the object of the most ar dent aspirations of his saints, Ps. 96. 8. Ps. 17. 15. If this be the import of the words (and we know of none so probable), it bears a very favourable appear|ance with respect to the state of things in Adam's family. It implies that the worship of God was there kept up, and that God was with them. Indeed if it were not established there, it appears to have had no existence in the world, which there is no reason to believe was 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. 18 And unto Enoch was born Irad and Irad begat Mehujael: q Ps. 49. 11. ever the case when once it had begun to be observed.-T Dwell in the land of Nod. So named from the event, from the circumstance of Cain's dwelling there. Nod is the original word for a vagabond, and the land of Nod is properly the land of the vagrancy of the wretched outcast who was condemned to wander up and down in it. The same term is employed by David in Ps. 56. 8, in speaking of his unsettled and wandering life; Thou tellest my wanderings (7772 nodi).' 6 17. And Cain knew his wife. Although the intermarriage of near kindred was afterwards forbidden and accounted incest, yet in the infancy of the world, this law, from the necessity of the case, must have been dispensed with, and brothers must have taken their sisters to wife. Cain's wife was undoubtedly his sister and married before the death of Abel, for after that event it can scarcely be supposed that any woman would be willing to connect herself with such a miserable fratricide. -¶ And he built a city. Heb. 'was building,' i. e. he engaged in aud busied himself about this enterprise. He was perhaps prompted to embark in this undertaking partly to divert his mind and prevent it from preying upon itself, and partly to provide for his security against the apprehended violence of other branches of Adam's family. It is no unusual thing for men to attempt to stifle the inward convictions and disquietude of their minds by plunging deep into the busy cares of the world. -¶ Called the name of the city after and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. 19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. the name of his son Enoch. Perhaps from the consciousness that his own name was odious and infamous. But he would still perpetuate the name of his family in connection with the city which he had founded. The circumstance reminds us of the words of the Psalmist, Ps. 49. 11, 'Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.' Enoch (Heb. Chanoch) means initiated or dedicated. Why he was so called it is impossible to determine. 18. Unto Enoch was born Irad, &c. The names here recited were doubtless those of the first-born, through whom the sacred genealogies are generally reckoned. There is nothing peculiarly worthy of note in respect to the persons composing this line, except the remarkable resemblance of the names to those of the descendants of Seth mentioned in the subsequent chapter--a circumstance for which it is difficult to account. Their ages are not mentioned, and the list is very quickly despatched, as if unworthy of being dwelt upon. 19. Lamech took unto him two wives. The first recorded instance of polygamy; a practice which directly contravenes the original ordinance of heaven, that two only should constitute one flesh, and for introducing which Lamech here condemned to infamous notoriety as long as the sacred narrative shall be read. 20. The father of such as dwell in tents, &c. Heb. 'the father of the in 21 And his brother's name was the sister of Tubal-cain was Jubal: he was the father of all Naamah. such as handle the harp and organ. 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and r Rom. 4. 11, 12. 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for Í have slain a mau to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. David is expressly described as playing upon it with his hand; but it appears from Josephus that it was also struck or played upon with a plectrum or bow. It seems to have been light and portable, as we find David playing upon it, as he danced before the ark. It was called by the Hebrews, 'the pleasant instrument,' and was not only used in their religious solemnities, but also in their private entertainments and occasions of enjoyment. The organ (11 oogab) certainly could not resemble the modern instrument of that name. It is supposed to have been a kind of flute, composed of one or two, and afterwards of about seven pipes of reeds, of unequal length and thickness, joined together; being nearly identical with the pipe of Pan among the Greeks, or that simple instrument called a 'mouth habiter of the tent and cattle.' Chal 'the master.' The original author, deviser, or founder of any particular craft or calling is termed the father of such as follow it. Jabal set the first example of that unsettled, nomadic mode of life which was adopted in after ages by those whose property consisted principally in flocks and herds, and who from residing in tents instead of more permanent habitations could easily transfor themselves from one region to another as the prospect of water or pasturage should chance to invite. In later times the descendants of Ishmael, the wandering Bedouin Arabs, have been peculiarly noted for these roving habits.- ¶ And of such as have cattle. Gr. 'feeders of cattle.' The literal import of the original is possession, from the fact that in the early ages of the world men's principal possessions con-organ,' which is still in common use in sisted in flocks and herds. The 'father some countries of Europe. of such as have cattle' is the title of him who first set the example of keeping and managing cattle, or who followed the shepherd's occupation. 21. The father of all such as handle the harp and the organ. Chal. 'The master of all that play on the psaltery and of such as know music.' The Heb. term for organ has the import of loveliness or delight, but upon the precise form and construction, of these instruments we cannot pronounce with much certainty, They are perhaps general terms for all stringed and wind instruments. The harp (1 kinnoor) of the Hebrews seems to have resembled the modern instrument in its form. It had ten strings, and in 1 Sam, 16, 23, 22. Tubal-cain. From this name comes, by very obvious derivation, the Greek Vulcan the name of the fabled god of smiths.¶ Instructor. Heb. 'whetter or sharpener;' he whose precepts and example first set the ingenuity of men at work in fabricating the various implements of brass and iron which are so indispensable in the arts of agriculture, architecture, and the different mechanical occupations. 23. I have slain a man to my wounding, &c. The Heb. particle rendered 'for' sometimes has a conditional meaning, equivalent to if, although, supposing that. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Lamech's words are to be understood, not as relating a matter of fact |