Genesis 4

Notes

Ver. 1. If Eve thought that in Cain she had gotten the man—Jehovah, the Messiah, as the words in the Hebrew may bear, she found herself sadly mistaken.—[Some translate 'I have gotten a man—Jehovah,' and believe that Eve supposed him to be the promised seed, who was to bruise the serpent's head. But the passage will not bear such a rendering. The emphatic word is kanithi, 'I have gotten;' hence the son was called Cain, which comes from the same root; and the sense of the whole is, 'I have gotten a man from (or with the assistance of) Jehovah.' P.]

Ver. 3. By instruction from God, more or less express, several of the Mosaic rites were practised long before the giving of the law at Sinai; as the distinction between clean and unclean beasts, Ge. 7. 2; priests, altars, burnt-offerings, and drink-offerings, 8. 20; 14. 18; 22. 13; 35. 14; abstinence from blood, 9. 4; oil for consecration, 28. 18; 35. 14; marriage of brothers' widows, 38. 8, 9, 20.

Ver. 4. He. 11.4, 'By faith—as to the divine appointment, of which their father had informed them, and by faith in the promised Messiah, signified thereby—Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain; (perhaps more proper in its matter, and certainly so in its manner), by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.' Perhaps the Lord testified his respect by consuming his sacrifice with fire from heaven, as in the case of Aaron, Le. 9. 24; Gideon, Ju. 6. 21; David, 1 Ch. 21. 26; Solomon, 2 Ch. 7. 1; and Elijah, 1 Ki. 18. 38.

Ver. 5-15. Full of rage against God and his brother, Cain's looks became sour, dejected, envious, and angry. To convince him of his fault, God showed him that it was his own want of faith and sincerity which hindered his acceptance; and that, if he did not repent, his sin would quickly subject him to punishment; and that in temporals Abel continued as subject to him and was as affectionate as ever. While they talked in the field, Cain, still enraged in his heart, murdered his righteous brother on account of his piety, Ps. 55. 21; 1 Jn. 3. 12. Abel's blood cried to God for just vengeance upon Cain, He. 12. 24. God, notwithstanding Cain's denial and insulting pretence that he had given him no charge of his brother, condemned him to punishment, and cursed the fields which he should cultivate into a further degree of barrenness, Ps. 9. 12. Cain never lamented the heinousness of his sin, but complained that it could not be pardoned, and that his punishment was too great; and that now everybody would be ready to kill him, as the public enemy of mankind, and devoted of God to destruction. But God marked him with some visible token, and denounced a still heavier vengeance against the person who should kill him. Thus, Job 18. 11; 15. 20-24. Terrors made him afraid on every side, and drove him to his feet. He travelled in pain all his days, &c.—Le. 26. 17, 36. 'But God slew him not, lest his people should forget,' Ps. 59. 11.——[Ver. 5. Why was this? The apostle Paul replies, 'By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent (literally, a fuller) sacrifice than Cain.' The faith was shown in the nature of the offering. Cain's was an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty—it was the offering of a Deist. Abel's, in addition, was an acknowledgment of guilt, of the necessity for an atonement—it was the offering of a humble, conscience-stricken sinner. P.——Ver. 7. Rule over him. There is no cause for jealousy, for Abel, though specially honoured of God, is still ready to obey Cain, as his elder brother. C.——This very obscure sentence appears to be connected with what immediately precedes—'Sin lieth at the door.' Sin is personified. Cain is represented as making it his slave, and employing it to execute his own wicked purposes; and the result is the murder of Abel. P.——Ver. 8. Field. The field, and not the altar of worship, as painters frequently represent, is mentioned as the scene of this melancholy transaction. Does not this suggest the probability that the immediate occasion of quarrel was some division of the land, becoming necessary in consequence of the different occupations of the brothers—pasturage and tillage?—— Ver. 15. Sevenfold. Why was not Cain sentenced to death, according to Ge. 9. 6? Simply because his crime, however aggravated, was not murder, but manslaughter. C.]

Ver. 19. Contrary to God's original institution of marriage, and the stated equality preserved by his providence among the males and females of mankind, Lamech, the descendant of Cain, to gratify his intemperate lust, first took a plurality of wives, and introduced a custom which still remains in many places of the world; and with which not a few of the pious Hebrews, inadvertent to the sinfulness thereof, complied; Ge. xvi. xxix.; 2 Sa. iii. v. 1 Ki. xi., &c. But Christ fully laid open the iniquity of this practice, and restored marriage to its original form: Ge. 2. 18-24; Mal. 2. 14, 15; Mat. 19. 8.

Ver. 20. [Houses were of earlier origin than tents. The tent is here connected with the keeping or rearing of cattle as a trade. The reason of this will be apparent to those acquainted with the East. Large flocks require a constant supply of grass throughout the year. This cannot be had in one locality. Shepherds therefore must move from place to place—southward in winter, northward in summer. A wandering life requires a movable habitation; hence the necessity for, and the invention of, the tent. P.]

Ver. 23, 24. To deter his wives from hurting him, or to render them fearless of his being hurt by others, he boasts that he was well able to take care of himself; and that God, who took so much care of Cain, would certainly take much more care of his life, who had never been a murderer. Perhaps for this purpose he puts it to them as a question, 'Have I slain a man to my wounding, or a young man to my hurt?' &c.

Ver. 26. The professors of the true religion, descended from Seth or others, called themselves the children of God, as a mark of distinction from the profane descendants of Cain; and they set up or re-established the more public and solemn worship of God on the Sabbath, or on other occasions.—[It is evident from this passage that at the birth of Enos some remarkable change took place in the manner in which the people of God paid their homage to the divine Being. It would seem that hitherto the worship had been chiefly ritualistic—by sacrifices and oblations; and that this had largely degenerated into a cold and heartless formalism. Now, however, the true nature of God, as expressed by the name Jehovah, began to be fully apprehended; and the consequence was that spiritual worship was given to him—'Then it was begun to invoke the name of Jehovah.' The phrase is impersonal. In the Hebrew there is no equivalent to 'men.' The mode of invocation was doubtless by prayer, both private and social; and God was invoked as Jehovah—the immutable, promising, and faithful God. The descendants of Cain devoted themselves to the pursuit of the arts and sciences, but the children of Seth rose to a true sense of man's dignity as an accountable and immortal being. They saw that God was a Spirit; and they worshipped him in spirit and in truth. P.]

Reflections.—Let me believe the promise of God; but never sinfully hasten to obtain the promised blessing, lest I grasp a devil, a murderer, instead of the great God my Saviour! Never let me partially esteem children, or anything else, lest what I regard become the plague of my soul, or my house; while what I contemn as vanity be highly favoured of the Lord! Let me train up my children betimes in proper callings, and especially in the fear and service of God! Let me always honour the Lord with the best I possess, ever remembering that 'without faith it is impossible to please him!' If he show a superior regard to others, never let my eye be evil because he is good, but let me ascribe righteousness to him, and take to myself shame and confusion of face! But how great is the strength of enraged natural corruption! Nothing is so base, so impious, so unnatural, but it will attempt it. How fearful for guilty transgressors to fall into the hands of a just God! No falsehood can deceive him, nor force withstand him. Nor can all the carnal expedients on earth relieve a conscience divinely charged and burdened with guilt. Never let me envy the prosperity of the wicked, their cities erected, their numerous and thriving families, their artful inventions, or pleasures of sense! But when Jesus adds to his church, or reforms the worship of it, let me rejoice thereat. Meanwhile, in the name, the employ, the sacrifice, and death of Abel, let me behold Jesus appearing in the likeness of sinful flesh, and sullied with the vilest reproach!—Jesus, as the great Shepherd of his Father's church:—Jesus, as the faithful offerer of himself unto God for a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour:—Jesus, the hatred and murder of whom, by his brethren the Jews, issued in the curse of their country, the rejection of their church, and the scattering and misery of their nation, as a lasting monument of the justice of heaven!