And Lemech took two wives the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second, Zillah.
Genesis 4 traces the line of Cain away from God. By the seventh generation it reaches a man named Lamech. In one sentence it records something new: a man with two wives. Commentators see in that quiet detail the breaking of God's oldest institution.
God's answer to Adam's aloneness was one woman, not two.
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.
One writer traces the later history of polygamy back to this one man.
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.
The names in Lamech's household sum up the family's character.
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.
Both names carry meaning, and the second has more than one possible sense.
"Adah" is "beauty," or "adornment"; "Zillah" is "the shaded one," from her hair, or possibly "sounding," perhaps from her singing voice.
Only a few women are named before the flood, and one writer asks what this choice of names shows.
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.
Lamech's line was prospering. One writer sees two evils tied to that prosperity from the start.
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 next chapter lists Seth's line, and its seventh man is Enoch.
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.
- Self-will first. Lamech's name speaks of human strength. His two wives show self-will refusing what God had arranged.
- One, not two. God's provision for Adam's aloneness was one counterpart. Taking two breaks the unity built into marriage from the start.
- Flood-gates. He only took two — but he was the pioneer, and the road from him runs on to Solomon and Ahasuerus.
- Corruption breeds violence. The same chapter that gives him two wives has him confess to murder. Both evils have since spread worldwide.
- The other seventh. Cain's line peaks in Lamech, the world in miniature. Seth's line peaks in Enoch, the believer's path through that world.
And Adah bore Jabal he was the father of those who dwell in tents, and [breed] cattle.
Jabal, son of Lamech, stands at the head of everyone who lives in tents and keeps livestock. He belongs to the family of Cain. So why does Scripture record what such a family did for a living?
Readers often skip these names as filler. One writer finds the point of the record in what the names mean:
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.
Keeping animals was not new — Abel had already been a shepherd. What Jabal introduced was a change of scale and motive:
"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.
A tent can mean a man owns nothing and is passing through. Here it means the reverse:
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.
The same tents can carry the opposite message:
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 is the first of three brothers. Together they map an entire society:
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.
Nothing in the verse is condemned as wrong in itself. The problem lies elsewhere:
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 order matters. City life came first, and the tent life of verse 20 came after it. That is the reverse of how we picture progress:
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.
If commerce and craft trace back to this family, should a believer abandon them? One writer answers no:
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.
- Named — Jabal's trade is on record because Scripture is telling the story of Cain's way and Cain's world. His name means "moving."
- Settled — his tents mark men settling down to prosperity without God. The same tents elsewhere mark men who give up their rights in the world.
- Threefold — Jabal's commerce, Jubal's music, and Tubal-cain's metalwork frame the whole of society. Take the three away and the world is empty.
- Godless — the livestock and the harps are not the sin. Making the world pleasant without God is.
- Kept — a believer stays in his calling with God, inside a system Satan built to keep man blind to his ruin. The Lord's prayer for him is not that he leave the world, but that he be kept from its evil.
And his brother's name was Jubal he was the father of those who handle the harp and pipe.
The verse names Jubal, a son in Cain's family line, and credits him with the first music. Why does the Bible place the birth of the arts here, in the family of a murderer who had lost God?
Older translations read "harp and organ" where the ESV has "lyre and pipe." Either way the pair covers two whole families of instrument, and "father of" points to an inventor.
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.
Music does not begin in Eden. It begins in the city Cain's family built after they had lost God.
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.
That record is deliberate. God had a reason for telling His people where these things began.
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.
Jubal is not listed alone. His name matches what he chose, and his two brothers chose differently.
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.
The fault is not in the instrument or in the sound. It lies in what people do with it.
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.
Jubal's harp sounded in a city built by a man who had killed his brother. What that music did then, other sounds do now.
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.
The line of Jubal is not the last word on music. Grace has been at work on it.
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.
- Origin. Music enters the Bible in Cain's city. Men who had lost God invented it, to get the most out of a world without Him.
- Gift. The instruments are not the problem. There is no harm in sweet sounds, and there are harpers in heaven. The harm lay in using them to make the world pleasant without God.
- Reach. Jubal is pleasure, standing between Jabal's commerce and Tubal-cain's science. Take those three away and the world is empty.
- Result. The harp drowned out the cry of Abel's blood. Such sounds still fill the ear of a world that will not look at a crucified Christ.
- Recovery. What the sons of Jubal degraded, grace is reclaiming, until it breaks out in a new and eternal song with no discord in it.
And Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, the forger of every kind of tool of brass and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
The line of Cain closes with a metalworker and his sister. Why does a chapter about murder and exile stop to name the world's first inventors?
The phrase "forger of all instruments of bronze and iron" carries two senses. A Bible dictionary gives both:
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.
One writer notices which metal comes first in the Bible, and where each one appears:
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.
Tubal-cain is the last of three brothers. Together they cover what people build a life around:
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.
The verse ends by naming a woman, which is unusual enough that commentators stop on it:
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.
Scripture does not condemn the craft itself. The problem lies elsewhere:
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.
Later, God gives skill to two craftsmen, Bezaleel and Aholiab, to build His sanctuary. One writer sets the two skills side by side:
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.
One writer traces these crafts back to the city Cain built, and reads the family's end as a verdict on all it achieved:
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."
- Craft. Tubal-cain forged tools of bronze and iron, and he taught the trade to others. Copper, the older metal, first enters the Bible with his family.
- Comfort. His metalwork completes Cain's world. Jabal brought money, Jubal music, Tubal-cain science — and Naamah, the first woman named after Eve, adds pleasure.
- Cause. The sin is not the forge. There is nothing wrong with working bronze and iron. The wrong is making the world pleasant without God.
- Contrast. God gave Bezaleel skill to beautify a sanctuary His presence would make holy. Cain's line used the same skill to decorate an earth under the curse.
- Close. Progress never lifted the curse, removed death's sting, or satisfied the human heart. Cain's line ends where it began — in another Cain.
And Lemech said to his wives Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, Ye wives of Lemech, listen to my speech. For I have slain a man for my wound, and a youth for my bruise.
Genesis 4 has already shown the world's first murder. Now it records the first song, and the singer is a killer telling his two wives what he did. Is he confessing, defending himself, or boasting?
Notice who this song is about, and who it is not about.
This is the first poetry recorded in the Bible. God is in no way its object; self, for this life, is. That is one more weighty addition to the picture of the world. Whatever the actual events were, his aim was to reassure his wives, who dreaded what his violence would bring. Lamech seems to plead that the blood he shed was shed in self-defence, not in murder as Cain's was. So he claims for himself the shelter God gave his own forefather, as the surest pledge that God will step in for him.
His song has an audience, and it is not God.
In Lamech's day polygamy came in. The first verse of poetry we hear of was not addressed to God in praise or in repentance. He addressed it to his wives. A little song goes out to Adah and Zillah, to excuse himself, to exalt himself, and to quiet their fears. The tone is defiant enough, and it even makes an irreverent claim to God's approval.
The older English wording of the verse can puzzle a reader. The phrase is not saying Lamech was hurt by killing; it is saying why he killed.
Lamech's speech to his wives may seem a little obscure, but the rendering of the New Translation, "for my wounding," and "for my hurt," makes it clearer. Some unfortunate young man had wounded and hurt Lamech, and in revenge Lamech rose up and killed him.
Because of that wording, some read the act as self-protection rather than cold murder.
The first death was caused by murder when Cain killed his brother Abel, and the second recorded is when Lamech said, "I have slain a man to my wounding," or "for my wound"; which may mean that he did it in self-defence.
Two evils meet in one man, and they are the two that later brought the flood.
Lamech's "self-will in lust" shows in his deliberate break with the marriage God set up in Eden. (Genesis 2:24.) He pleased himself by taking two wives. He also took revenge, and it cost his enemy his life. Later God sent the flood because of two forms of evil: corruption and violence (see chapter 6:12-13). Both of them meet in Lamech.
These are not ancient problems only. They grow up alongside the prosperity described just before.
From the very first, two principles of evil are linked with this prosperity, and they are bound to undermine the whole society. Verse 23 shows them: corruption and violence... These two degrading evils have spread through the whole world. The media advertises them all the time, while government tries and fails to control the wild, beastly character of men.
Compare the two killers of this chapter, and the direction of the human heart becomes visible.
When Cain had murdered centuries before, he showed some sense of wrongdoing. Lamech was different. He came home to brag to his wives about what he had done, and to sneer at God's word that forbade revenge against Cain. If Cain was to be avenged sevenfold, why, he would be seventy and sevenfold. He felt himself to be eleven times more important than Cain. Here was the pride of life in high degree!
Several writers see more here than one man's history, and they say so with caution.
Chapter 4:23 may be taken as history, and it is true; but as a picture it points to the Jews at the end. There is self-will in it every way. As a picture it is the remnant of Israel in the last day; but we must not be dogmatic about that. Cain is a figure of Israel having killed Christ, and made a wanderer on the earth. At the end the remnant of Israel will own, like Lamech, that they have killed this man to their wounding.
That reading fits how God has treated this people ever since.
The fact is certain that God watches over His ancient people, far guiltier than Cain, but guilty of blood that speaks better than Abel's... There they are — wanderers, yet preserved as no people ever was, kept for everlasting mercy when their heart turns to God and to Him Whom they cast out.
- First song, wrong subject. The Bible's first poem is not praise and not repentance. Self is its theme. Two frightened wives are its audience.
- First excuse. He killed a man for wounding him. Some read that as provocation, even self-defence.
- First boast. Cain showed some sense of guilt. Lamech brags, and rates himself eleven times more important than Cain.
- Two seeds of the flood. Corruption in his marriage and violence with his hands meet in one man. These are the two evils God judged in Genesis 6.
- First echo of a last-day confession. Read as a picture, Lamech owning the blood he shed points ahead to a preserved people who will confess the death of Christ. The writers hold this as likely, not certain.
If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold; Lemech seventy and seven fold.
Lamech's words to his wives close the line of Cain, and they are the first piece of poetry recorded in the Bible. He seizes the protection God once gave Cain and multiplies it for himself, leaving us to ask whether he is boasting or confessing.
Lamech sings to his own household, and the subject of the song is his own safety.
This is the first poetry recorded in the Bible. God is in no way its subject; the subject is self, and self for this life. That adds one more weighty stroke to the picture of the world. Whatever the exact history, he wanted to calm his wives, who dreaded what his violent deeds would bring. Lamech seems to plead that he shed blood in self-defence, and not as a murderer like Cain. So he takes hold of the shelter God gave his own forefather, as the surest guarantee that God will step in for him too.
One writer works out what Lamech claimed for himself, and how a clearer wording of the previous verse brings it out.
Lamech's speech to his wives may seem a little unclear, but another translation's wording — "for my wounding" and "for my hurt" — makes it plainer. Some unfortunate young man had wounded and hurt Lamech, and in revenge Lamech got up and killed him. When Cain murdered centuries before, he showed some sense of having done wrong. Not so Lamech. He came home to brag to his wives about what he had done, and to sneer at God's word that forbade anyone to take revenge on Cain. If Cain would be avenged sevenfold, then he would be avenged seventy-sevenfold. He felt he was eleven times more important than Cain. Here was the pride of life at full height!
Lamech sinned in two directions at once: in his marriage, and against his enemy.
He pleased himself by taking two wives. He also took revenge, and at the cost of his enemy's life. The two kinds of evil that later made God send the flood — corruption and violence (see chapter 6:12-13) — are both combined in Lamech.
Lamech is the last man named in Cain's family tree, and his song is the family's final word.
With Lamech and his sons the line of Cain ends. In him self-will, and the abuse of God's patience without repentance, reach their height. He took more than one wife and was ready to kill. His own name speaks of the human "strength" he glories in. His wives' names speak of the desires of eye and ear that he chases. His sons' names and their inventions show how, then as now, a soul away from God will use His creatures so that he can do without Him.
Counting the generations from Adam places Lamech beside another man.
It is interesting that we read of two men who were "the seventh from Adam" (Jude v.14) in the sense of the seventh generation. The first one was Lamech, and we read of him in Genesis 4:19-24. He was the first bigamist and his song shows a remarkable degree of arrogance. He is the seventh — the full display — of man in the line of Cain, in the line of the flesh.
Commentators differ over the tone of Lamech's words. Some hear defiance:
I can only think that Lamech's words were a threat — "Have I done as Cain? I will be seventy-seven times avenged" (though I admit it is true of the Jewish remnant at the end, as slayers of Christ).
Others hear a confession. In this reading Lamech owns his sin and counts on grace to go further than his sin.
Then, with true gospel understanding, he makes much of his sin, and admits that it was his ruin. But then again, with true gospel simplicity, he makes far more of grace… In his thoughts, "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
Two killers, and only one of them confesses. Some writers see a picture of Israel here.
Cain is a picture of Israel having killed the Lord Jesus and not confessing their crime. Lamech seems to be a type of Israel too, in a coming day confessing their guilt in having killed the Messiah. Then God will pour out overwhelming vengeance on those nations that are set on wiping Israel out (Zechariah 12:9-14).
- Seven — God's own number of protection over Cain, spoken by God to restrain other men's hands.
- Seventy-seven — that same number seized by a man and multiplied for himself, making him "eleven times more important than Cain."
- Two evils — corruption and violence, the pair that later brought the flood, meet in this one singer.
- Seventh from Adam — Lamech stands seventh in Cain's line: man in the flesh on full display.
- Two readings — is the song a killer's threat, or a guilty man's confession that grace outweighs sin? Commentators differ. Some also hear in it Israel's later confession of the Messiah they rejected.