Genesis 4:11–22

God had cursed the serpent, had cursed the ground for Adam's sake, but did not pronounce a curse on him, nor on Eve. Sorrow was the lot of both man and woman. But now the first human blood has been spilled, and God curses the man, Cain. "And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand." It is as if the earth itself cursed the murderer. It had drunk the blood of his brother, so it would never yield its strength to Cain when he tilled it. For Adam the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles. Yet when Adam tilled it, the earth did not hold back its strength. It gave it, though only by the sweat of his face.

But Abel's blood had spoken from the ground into the ear of God. A special curse came down on Cain at once, on top of the curse that had already fallen on Adam and his race, as we saw in Genesis 3. Adam was to get his food only by the sweat of his face. Cain was to find the earth barren even if he worked hard to till it. So he would become a wanderer, fleeing from the face of God.

God would make him feel that his work was not as good as he had tried to make God believe it was in his offering. If this curse had done its proper work in Cain, he would have owned his sin honestly. Then the outcome for him in eternity could have been wonderfully different.

Notice that nothing like civil government was set up at the beginning. Man did not invent it either, through all the centuries before the flood. God set it up for the first time after that great event... So no man punished Cain. After God gave the sword to Noah, responsibility would have required that. From then on God required blood for blood: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

Finally, Christ's blood was shed on earth, as Cain shed Abel's blood. Abel's blood cried from the earth for vengeance, so that Cain became a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth — a striking picture of the Jew, guilty of the death of Christ. Christ's blood does not do that. Instead grace speaks, and the shed blood cries out to gain pardon and peace for those who shed it.

Driven out from the presence of God, he sets about to establish himself. He seeks for himself a home, not with God in heaven, but on the earth, from which God had pronounced him "cursed!" He makes himself master of a city where God had made him a wanderer.

God had cursed the serpent and the ground for Adam's sake, but He did not curse Adam or Eve... Now the first human blood is spilled, and the man, Cain, is cursed. It is as if the earth itself cursed the murderer, and, because it had drunk the blood of his brother, would never yield her strength to Cain when he tilled it. To Adam it would bring forth thorns and thistles. But when Adam tilled it, the earth did not withhold her strength; it gave its yield, though by the sweat of his face. However great Cain's toil might be, the earth would give him no proper return for his labour.

The plain statement speaks of God's government of the earth, as fits a revelation given to His people Israel. So we hear nothing of heaven or of hell. The lot of the man who killed his righteous brother was heavier than before. He was cursed himself on an unwilling earth, and he would draw his food from it only with difficulty. A bad conscience and anxious fears would never stop preying on him, and everyone around him would shun him.

This was a very mild and merciful way to deal with a wicked man whose hands carried his brother's blood. It was meant to give him time for bitter reflection, self-loathing and anguish — but sin had hardened his heart into a millstone.

This is a description of every unbeliever. As a fugitive he is in effect running away from God, never facing up to his guilt and his need of a Saviour. As a vagabond, he is a wanderer, going in every direction to seek rest or satisfaction but never finding it. So even on earth the condition of the unbeliever is sad, but how much more so in eternity!

Driven out from the presence of God, he sets about establishing himself. He seeks a home for himself, not with God in heaven, but on the earth from which God had pronounced him cursed. He makes himself master of a city where God had made him a wanderer.

Do you know what "Nod" means? It means "wandering."... He builds a city. He as good as says: I have gone out from the presence of God, but I will try to make myself as happy and comfortable as I can. I will build a city. I will forget that I am a wanderer, and I will forget that I am a sinner. That is how Cain started what you and I now call the world.

Like Cain, the Jews ended up killing Jesus Christ the Righteous, though He came from them as a man — their own Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. So they too have gone out from the presence of Jehovah. They are cursed from the earth for blood-guiltiness, and they live in a land of wandering exile. For now they have lost their divine mission of blessing to all the families of the earth. So they turn to city life, to bold adventure, to the inventions of art and science, and to the comforts of the civilised world.

The sentence pronounced on Cain — "When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength" — will be removed. For we read of the day when God will make His face shine on restored Israel: "then the earth shall yield its increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us; God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." (Psalm 67)

What room there was for self-judgment, if only Cain had taken Jehovah's appeals to heart! He ignored His words and gave no thanks for His patience. He does not shed one tear over his murdered and martyred brother; his whole feeling is for himself. It was not his iniquity that overwhelmed his conscience. He complained that his punishment was too great to bear. The context shows this is the true meaning of his words. "Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground, and from Your face I shall be hidden." But what care did he have for Jehovah's face? He dared to come to Jehovah with the fruit of the ground — ground cursed because of man's sin — with no victim, no confession of sin and death, and still less any thought of a Saviour to come.

There is a forced mourning when tears are pumped out by God's judgments. Such was Cain's mourning: "My punishment is greater than I can bear" (Gen. 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin. To mourn only because you fear hell is like a thief who weeps over the penalty rather than the offence. A sinner mourns because judgment follows at the heel of sin; but David cries out, "my sin is ever before me" (Ps. 51:3). The prodigal son says, "I have sinned against heaven and before you." He does not say, "I am almost starved among the husks," but "I have offended my Father."

Cain's response to God (v. 13-14) was not repentant, but protesting. Instead of being ashamed, he felt sorry for himself: "My punishment is greater than I can bear." Contrast the robber dying on a cross next to the Lord Jesus. He said, "we are receiving the due reward of our deeds" (Luke 23:41). How much better to accept God's penalty than to resent it! Submission leaves the way open for God to show mercy.

From that day to this, sinful men who will not repent have complained that God's judgment is too severe. Only when men repent do they bow and humbly admit that His judgment is just.

Here we see the swing that ends in despair. It begins with unbelieving indifference, a dislike of grace, and hatred of grace's object as well as its source. How deep the lesson and solemn the warning! How hard his heart was! He thought so little of the guilt of murdering his own brother — and what a brother Abel was. He took Jehovah's goodness with no thanks, though everything Jehovah did and said to him left the door open for repentance, and, it seems, for a sin offering too.

Here we see that the flesh cannot be reformed. Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord, claiming that the burden of punishment is greater than he can bear. Yet he builds himself a city, makes himself a name, and sets up the whole order of civilization that has gone on ever since. This is the "way of Cain," the way of the flesh. It begins by denying sin and refusing the sacrifice. Then it stains the earth with innocent blood, and surrounds itself with comfort and pleasure away from God.

It was not his sin that overwhelmed his conscience. He complained that his punishment was too great to bear. The rest of his words shows this is what he meant. But did he care about the Lord's face at all? He had dared to come to the Lord with the fruit of the ground that was cursed for man's sin — with no victim, no confession of sin and death, and no thought of a Saviour to come.

There is a forced mourning when tears are pumped out by God's judgments. Such was Cain's mourning: "My punishment is greater than I can bear" (Genesis 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin. To mourn only from fear of hell is like a thief who weeps over the penalty instead of the crime. The prodigal son says, "I have sinned against heaven and before you." He does not say, "I am almost starved among the husks," but "I have offended my Father."

Cain's answer to God (v. 13-14) showed no repentance; it was a protest. He was not ashamed; he felt sorry for himself. The robber dying on a cross next to the Lord Jesus said the opposite: "we are receiving the due reward of our deeds" (Luke 23:41). How much better it is to submit to God's penalty rather than to resent it, for submission leaves the way open for God to show mercy. But Cain says that God has driven him out from the face of the earth. Those were not God's actual words. He adds that he would be hidden from God's face. Yet it was Cain himself who had chosen this: he had sought to hide his evil works from the Lord.

God had not said to him to leave His presence. Cain does and goes out from His presence himself, to dwell where judgment had made him a vagabond, and then comes the world — the world as God sees it in its true place before Him.

And Cain departs from God, and proves that he is one. He does not like to be called a vagabond, but that is really what man is by nature. Do you know what vagabond means? It means a man who is always on the move — a man that is never settled — never at rest. The next thing we read of Cain is that he "went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod." Do you know what "Nod" means? It means "wandering."

Bold as he was, his guilty conscience could not keep his fears hidden: "whoever finds me will kill me." But there he was mistaken. The Lord's patience with His enemies is amazing. Men today would feel it and admit it, if they let in enough light to see their own dark hatred of God.

The subject of prayer opens in Scripture with the case of Cain. There was in him no dependence on God at all. But when God had pronounced his judgment, he makes an appeal to God, and God takes care that nothing he dreaded should take place. What does Cain do with the gift he gets in answer to his appeal? He settles down quietly to make himself as happy as possible without God's presence on earth.

In the last verse of Genesis 3, Adam was driven out of the Garden. In verse 16 of our chapter Cain "went away from the presence of the LORD." The first was a forced judgment; the second was a deliberate walking away. To a murderer who would not repent, God's presence was something he hated.

God had not said to him to leave His presence. Cain does and goes out from His presence himself, to dwell where judgment had made him a vagabond, and then comes the world — the world as God sees it in its true place before Him.

So even for Cain there was a "face of the Lord," and he linked it with Eden — near to paradise, though still outside it. "Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground," he says, "and from Your face I shall be hidden." Then we read that Cain "went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." This is easier to grasp because later God chose to place His presence in one location in Israel, there too with fire and figures of cherubim.

So it was Cain who "went away from the presence of the LORD" and settled in that land east of Eden, which seems to be named after his exile. The LORD was no longer in his thoughts. The world was his object… He had no fear of the LORD… "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil." Grace gives space for repentance; ungodliness twists that space into time to follow its own will and indulge its lusts, in defiance of God and His word.

Here we see that the flesh will not be corrected. Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord claiming that his punishment is more than he can bear. Yet he builds himself a city, makes himself a name, and sets up the whole order of civilization that has gone on ever since. This is the "way of Cain," the way of the flesh. It begins with the denial of sin and a refusal of the sacrifice. It goes on to stain the earth with innocent blood, and to surround itself with comfort and pleasure away from God.

Cain went out from the presence of God, and what does he do then? He builds a city… There was no harm in the music itself. But why did they want it? It was to make them content in being away from God. Is not this "harm" enough? After Adam sinned, he heard God's voice and hid among the trees in the garden. There was no harm in the trees, but there was harm in his hiding. There is harm in man's trying to make himself comfortable away from God.

In his actual condition, man is a sinner cast out of Paradise and already out of the presence of God. He ought to be conscious that he is out, and that the only way back to God is through His Son.

It was Cain then who "went out from the presence of Jehovah," and dwelt in that land which seems named from his exile, east of Eden. Jehovah was no longer before his mind. The world was his object... His son is the "initiated," and his father gives that name to the city he was building. This is a most striking fact for that day. It is most notable of all in the man whom Jehovah had sentenced to be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.

Cursed from the earth because of his sin, Cain was a fugitive and a vagabond. There was no thought of repentance in his heart because of the murder of his brother. There was no desire to be reconciled to God. He sought to forget God, and to quiet the stirrings of a guilty conscience in a place of his own designing and building, where he could find his pleasure with those descended from him, away from God.

Cain was not willing to remain a poor vagabond. At the very least, he did not want to leave his family in that state. He wanted them to escape his own lot. So he built a city in the land of Nod ("Nod" is the Hebrew word translated vagabond in the first instance). He wanted his family settled in the country where God had made him a vagabond. He names the city after his son, as the great people of this world do.

Once away from God, he builds a city — to be as comfortable as possible despite the curse and without God. He calls it Enoch, after the name of his own son: a memorial to self at a distance from God.

"The world," morally speaking, was what the devil made after man fell. The first beginning of "the world" was in Cain and his line. For what do we see in Cain? God sentenced him to be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, and he strives to erase that. He built a city. They are not content for one to live here and another there; they must all herd together.

He had built his city. He had his craftsmen in brass and iron — and so have we now. He had harp and organ — and so have we now. He pleased himself without thinking of God, shutting God out and making the world pleasant to the natural feelings apart from Him. It was then and is now alike.

His wife there bore him a son who was named Enoch (meaning "dedicated"). Of course Cain's wife would be his sister, the daughter of Adam and Eve. We are told then that Cain built a city (v. 17). That could take place only after some years, when his family had multiplied. Adam lived 930 years, long enough for his descendants to increase beyond his ability to count.

Now God's thought for man is a city too. Faith looks for a "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Cain's city was not original with him, nor is God's thought copied from man's. It is itself the original; only it must wait for another scene for its fulfilment. For He cannot build in a scene as storm-tossed and shifting as the present one. To run ahead of God's time is unbelief, not faith.

With this we say goodbye to Cain. Verse 18 only lists the names of his nearer descendants. Verse 19 stops at Lamech to give us a few details. Strikingly, this man was the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, just as Enoch was in the line through Seth. In the details given we see the world system beginning to take shape.

Mehujael — Destroyed of God; or, Blot out that Jah is God. … Methusael — Dying who are of God.

The line of Cain was made up of men who gave expression to the flesh and to the principles of the world. In the line of Seth, God preserved a godly seed in men of faith. In both lines, number seven was the man of outstanding character and power — the man in whom each line's tendency reached its full expression. In Lamech (Gen. 4:19-24) we have set forth the world in its main features; in Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24) the believer's pathway through the world.

In Seth's line we have people only. They lived so many years and died — that is all. But the progress of the world is mostly told in Cain's family: cursed from the ground, hidden from God, yet building cities and arts and luxury, and a sister whose name meant "Pleasantness."

Cain's line comes next (Gen. 4:16-24). Seven in all — the number of completeness — ending with a second Cain. (Tubal Cain means "flowing from Cain.") In this line we have the beginnings of "society," and the growth of the arts and sciences. God left out of it all. No ages given here.

Unbelief has drawn our attention to a likeness between the two lines of Cain and Seth. There is a real likeness, and it is worth examining. The resemblance between some of the names is surely only on the surface. But there are certainly two Enochs and two Lamechs, and the two Lamechs stand close to the end of the old world. Between the two Enochs, everything recorded is contrast. The first gives his name to the city Cain builds, as if in defiance of his sentence — a city whose builder and maker is not God. The other Enoch belongs to a line with no history on earth. He walks with God, and he is not, for God has taken him.

The line of Cain ends with Lamech and his sons. In Lamech, self-will and an unrepentant abuse of God's patience reach their height. … This is a generation like those the Lord spoke of, whose last state is worse than the first. With Cain there are seven generations, and the last is still Cain, only developed further. It is progress in a race running away from God — men who mean to take the earth for themselves in spite of Him, and to be prosperous citizens in the land of wandering.

He is marked as the first to violate the divine order of marriage. It was "not good that the man should be alone." But His provision was not two or more, but one woman, "a helper fit for him," his counterpart. Self-will kept growing. It no longer hesitated to cut across God's mind, which His act had made clear enough for those who fear God: and "Lamech took two wives." From the beginning it was not so. Polygamy directly breaks that unity which belongs to marriage as God first set it up. The law no doubt allowed some licence, because of the hard-heartedness of Israel — that is, of man in the flesh. But the law made nothing perfect. Christ upheld the truth, as He Himself is the truth.

He broke through the marriage order as God set it up at the beginning, when one man and one woman were united. Apparently Lamech was the first to set aside this and take more than one wife. What God had arranged was nothing to him! True, he only took two. The state of things we find with a Solomon or an Ahasuerus may seem far below this. But it was Lamech who opened the flood-gates! What led him to pioneer the entrance of this great evil into the earth? The lust of the flesh.

With Lamech and his sons the line of Cain ends: one in whom self-will and unrepentant abuse of God's patience reach their height. He was a polygamist and a would-be murderer. His own name speaks of the human "strength" he rejoices in. His wives' names speak of the lust of eye and ear that he chases after. His sons' names and their inventions speak of how, then as now, a soul away from God will use His creatures so as to be able to do without Him.

"Adah" is "beauty," or "adornment"; "Zillah" is "the shaded one," from her hair, or possibly "sounding," perhaps from her singing voice.

The names of Lamech's wives are given, as Eve's was, and of the women before the flood only these are named, along with his daughter Naamah. Eve was named with clear significance, so Lamech's choice may well show the pleasing of taste in the growing world. For Adah means "beauty," Zillah "shadow," and Naamah "pleasant." God was not in the thought behind these names. The names fitted the advances of civilisation, which looks down on the pilgrim and stranger life that faith holds dear. Earth is its home, and it welcomes anything that adds to its present beauty.

Two principles of evil are linked with this prosperity from the very first, and they cannot help but undermine the whole of society. These are seen in verse 23: corruption and violence. Lamech corrupted God's institution of marriage by having two wives. But he also confesses to his wives that he has been guilty of murder. These two degrading evils have spread throughout all the world. Today the media advertises them constantly, while government tries and fails to control the wild, brutal character of men.

The line of Cain was made up of men in whom the flesh and the principles of the world found expression. In the line of Seth, God preserved a godly seed in men of faith. In both lines the man of outstanding character and power was number seven. He was the man in whom each line's tendencies found their complete expression. In Lamech (Genesis 4:19-24) we have the world set out in its main features; in Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24) the believer's pathway through the world.

Sometimes people say, what is the use of recording all these names? Why are Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain mentioned? The reason is that God wants to give us the story of Cain's "way" and Cain's "world." The meaning of Jabal is "moving." He was a true son of Cain, always on the move — always wanting something new. That is the spirit of the world.

"Jabal, the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock" — he was the one who brought the commercial spirit into the life of herding flocks. He made a regular business of what before seems to have been more a supply for individual and family needs. He is the typical commercial man, the man of business.

Jabal, the son of Lamech, "was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock." This was not the mark of a pilgrim path. It showed men settling down to a life of prosperity without God.

They lived in tents, showing plainly that they were not taking up any settled place in the earth. They surrendered their rights in the world.

Jabal was the man who started commerce. Jubal did not care for making money. His name — "playing" — described his character. Jubal said: Jabal, you may get money if you like, but I am going in for pleasure. So Jabal went in for money and Jubal for music. Tubal-cain worked in bronze and iron — in other words, science and art. Take out of the world the man of commerce, the man of pleasure, and the man of science, and you will find the world empty — cleaned out. Money, music, and science formed Cain's world at the start, and by them Satan holds the world in his hand now more than ever.

Notice further the capacity man has for making himself happy while estranged from God. Among the family of Cain we find the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock (v. 20). We also find the father of those who play the lyre and pipe (v. 21), and the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron (v. 22). Now there is nothing wrong in working bronze and iron, and there is no harm in sweet sounds — we read in the book of Revelation of harpers in heaven. But what Cain was doing was this: he was making the world pleasant without God.

The holy wisdom of God took care to inform His people of the true origin of city life, and of nomad life as well — nomad life coming after city life, not before. He showed them where music came from, and its practice on stringed and wind instruments, and the working of copper and iron, and polygamy, and self-absorbed poetry, the first recorded song of man. It is a picture of man's skill and energy, civilisation, letters, and luxury. Scripture shows them to be the inventions of men far from God, who tried in vain to make the earth of their exile a paradise of their own.

The ordinary rule of Scripture is that a man should stay in the calling he was called in, and stay there with God. The blessed Lord was a carpenter until He was called to His fuller service, and Paul was a tentmaker who at times supplied his own needs. Christianity does not change the order of the world, even where sin has given rise to it. The world is an immense system built up by Satan around fallen man to keep him unaware of his ruin (Gen. 4:20-22). The Lord does not pray that we should be taken out of it, but kept from the evil.

Jubal, the son, was "the father of all who play the harp and the organ (or flute)," that is, the inventor of stringed and wind instruments. Jubal is the father of the fine arts, the man of culture.

It would seem as if Cain's family, having lost God, would now get the utmost out of the present world. The city of Enoch soon rang with music and with the busy hammering of the metalworker. Comforts and accomplishments gave it its character. It became, as men would say, the centre of light and learning, and the great trading hub of the human family. But God had no place there; it was a city of which He was not the builder and maker.

The Holy Spirit shows what rose up in Cain's line. It was not a new language or a separate nation, as we in our ignorance might have expected, but science and art, and even the fine arts. God's holy wisdom took care to tell His people where these things truly began: city life, music played on stringed and wind instruments, the working of copper and iron, polygamy, and self-absorbed verse — the first recorded song of man. It is a picture of man's skill and energy, civilisation, letters, and luxury.

Jabal was "the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle." He started commerce. Jubal did not care for making money. His name — "playing" — describes his character, and he says, I will go in for pleasure... Tubal-cain taught "every worker in brass and iron" — in other words, science and art. That is, I am sure, the scientific world. Take out of the world the man of commerce, the man of pleasure, and the man of science, and you will find the world empty — cleaned out. Money, music, and science formed Cain's world at the start, and by them Satan holds the world in his hand now more than ever.

And notice further the ability man has to make himself happy while cut off from God. In Cain's family we find the father of those who live in tents and keep cattle, the father of those who play the harp and the organ, and the teacher of every worker in brass and iron. Now there is nothing wrong in working brass and iron; neither is there any harm in sweet sounds — we read in the book of Revelation of harpers in heaven — but what Cain was doing was this: he was making the world pleasant without God.

In Cain's day the pleasant sounds of "the harp and organ" no doubt drowned out, to man's ear, the cry of Abel's blood. It is the same now. Man's ear is full of other sounds than those that come from Calvary, and his eye full of other sights than a crucified Christ.

Music has been the highest expression of the feelings of the heart of man. The fall silenced its note of triumph. Sadly, the sons of Jubal have dragged music down into a servant of the passions, feeding the desires of fallen man. But even here the sweet note of divine grace, in a quiet undertone, has been gaining clearness, fullness and freedom. Now, in the age of the Holy Spirit, it is the leading theme that controls the whole harmony. That harmony will one day burst out in a new and eternal song, with no discord to spoil it.

Son of Lamech and Zillah. He was an instructor of every skilled worker in bronze and iron, or a forger of every kind of bronze and iron tool.

Copper appears very early in the Scriptures. In Genesis 4:22 Tubal-cain instructs those who worked in bronze — copper, as we will call it from here on. It is suggestive that gold comes first, and before the fall: "the gold of that land is good" (Genesis 2:11-12). God's glory comes first. It may also be suggestive that copper turns up in connection with the family of Cain. It is quite striking that copper seems to have been the earlier and more widely used metal, compared with iron. The Bronze Age came, we are told, before the Iron Age.

Jabal was the man who started commerce. He was the founder of the commercial world. Jubal did not care about making money. His name — "playing" — described his character, and he said, I will go in for pleasure... while Tubal-cain "was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron" — in other words, science and art. Take out of the world the man of commerce, the man of pleasure, and the man of science, and you will find the world empty — cleaned out. Money, music, and science formed Cain's world at the start.

Naamah, Lamech's daughter, is the first woman the record names after Eve. We judge this is because her name means Pleasure or Charming. Add pleasure, and the chase after it, to the features we have just noticed, and you have the foundation principles of man's world.

Notice further how able man is to make himself happy while he lives cut off from God. Now there is nothing wrong in working bronze and iron. There is no harm in sweet sounds either — the book of Revelation shows harpists in heaven. But what Cain was doing was this: he was making the world pleasant without God.

There is a lesson worth learning in comparing this chapter with Genesis 4. Tubal-cain "was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron." Cain's descendants received unholy skill. They used it to make a cursed and groaning earth a delightful place, without the presence of God. Bezaleel and Aholiab, by contrast, received divine skill to beautify a sanctuary — a place the presence and glory of the God of Israel would make holy and bless.

Cain built a city in defiance of his sentence of wandering — a city which his sons decorate with arts and inventions... Adam wove his belt out of fig leaves; Cain's sons weave all nature into a web of self-deception, to hide from themselves the shame of their nakedness. They are pioneers of progress. For all its mighty results in the ages since, that progress has never been enough to lift the curse off the earth. It has never taken the sting out of death, or satisfied the craving heart of man, or delivered anyone from the corruption in the world through lust. It has built up luxury. It has added burdens to people already burdened. It has kindled wars, which come from the desires that war within us. The last of Cain's family is only Tubal-Cain — "Cain's offspring."