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The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:16-24
The kingdom of God contrasted with the kingdom of this world. Society without the Lord. The banished Cain and his descendants. I. MULTIPLICATION apart from Divine order is no blessing. II. CIVILIZATION without religion…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:17-26
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:17-26
The progress of the race. I. ITS INCREASE IN POPULATION. Starting from a single pair in Eden, in the course of seven generations the human family must have attained to very considerable dimensions. At the birth of Seth,…
The Pulpit Commentary on 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 a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:18
Years passed away, the family of Cain grew to manhood, and, in imitation of their parents, founded homes for themselves. And unto Enoch (whose wife probably would also be his sister, few caring at this early stage to in…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 4:19-24
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…
The Family of Lamech. (b. c. 3875.)
THE FAMILY OF LAMECH. (B. C. 3875.) We have here some particulars concerning Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain. Observe, I. His marrying two wives. It was one of the degenerate race of Cain who first tra…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:19
And Lamech took unto him two wives. Being the first polygamist of whom mention is made, the first by whom "the ethical aspect of marriage, as ordained by God, was turned into the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh" (…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:20
And Adah bare Jabal. Either the Traveler or the Producer, from yabhal, to flow; poetically, to go to walk; hiphil, to produce; descriptive, in the one case, of his nomadic life, in the other of his occupation or his wea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:21
And his brother's name was Jubal. Player on an instrument, the musician. Cf. jobel, an onomatopoetic word signifying jubilum, a joyful sound. Cf. Greek, ὀ λολυ ì ζειν ἀ λαλαì ζειν; Latin, ululare; Swedish, iolen; Dutc…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 4:22
And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain. Worker in brass or iron;related to Persian, tupal, iron dross (Gesenius, Rodiger, Delitzsch). Keil and Furst think this Persian root cannot be regarded as the proper explanation of…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 4:23-24
By this speech of Lamech, which is here recorded, and probably was much talked of in those times, he further appears to have been a wicked man, as Cain's accursed race generally were. Observe, 1. How haughtily and imper…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 4:25-26
Our first parents were comforted in their affliction by the birth of a son, whom they called Seth, that is, ‘set,’ ‘settled,’ or ‘placed;’ in his seed mankind should continue to the end of time, and from him the Messiah…
The Birth of Seth. (b. c. 3874.)
THE BIRTH OF SETH. (B. C. 3874.) This is the first mention of Adam in the story of this chapter. No question, the murder of Abel, and the impenitence and apostasy of Cain, were a very great grief to him and Eve, and the…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 5:1-5
Adam was made in the image of God; but when fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner l…
Genealogies. (b. c. 3852.)
GENEALOGIES. (B. C. 3852.) The first words of the chapter are the title or argument of the whole chapter: it is the book of the generations of Adam; it is the list or catalogue of the posterity of Adam, not of all, but…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 5:1-32
The antediluvian saints. I. DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. AS such they were— 1. A sinful race. Adam's son Seth was begotten in his father's image. Though still retaining the Divine image (1 Corinthians 11:7) as to nature, in res…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 5:1-32
§ 3. THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM (CH. 5:1-6:8) EXPOSITION The present section carries forward the inspired narrative another stage, in which the onward progress or development of the human race is traced, in the holy line o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 5:3-5
At the head of the Adamic race stands the first man, whose career is summarized in three short verses, which serve as a model for the subsequent biographies. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years. Shanah, a repetit…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 5:6-20
Concerning each of these, except Enoch, it is said, “and he died.” It is well to observe the deaths of others. They all lived very long; not one of them died till he had seen almost eight hundred years, and some of them…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 5:6-20
We have here all that the Holy Ghost thought fit to leave upon record concerning five of the patriarchs before the flood, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared. There is nothing observable concerning any of these pa…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 5:6-20
The lives of the succeeding patriarchs are framed upon the model of this Adamic biography, and do not call for separate notice. The names of the next six were Seth (Genesis 5:6; vide Genesis 4:25); Enos (Genesis 5:9; vi…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 5:21-24
Enoch was the seventh from Adam. Godliness is walking with God: which shows reconciliation to God, for two cannot walk together except they be agreed, Am 3:3. It includes all the parts of a godly, righteous, and sober l…
Translation of Enoch. (b. c. 3017.)
TRANSLATION OF ENOCH. (B. C. 3017.) The accounts here run on for several generations without any thing remarkable, or any variation but of the names and numbers; but at length there comes in one that must not be passed…