Cain and Seth
Cain and Seth
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A New Generation
The human made love to Eve, his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have acquired a man with Yahweh.” Later she also gave birth to his brother Abel.
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Exiled from Eden, Adam and Eve learned to make their way in a hostile new environment. They had lost their home and access to the healing power of the tree of life, but they had not lost contact with Yahweh. He was still present, guiding and protecting his children. Their punishment had not completely nullified his blessings, and humanity soon began to multiply.
Genesis 4 records the origins of two lines descended from Adam and Eve. It is the story not of Cain and Abel but of Cain and Seth. Through the line of Cain, sin and violence spread on the earth until it reached the intolerable levels that brought about the flood. But through the line of Seth, who replaced righteous Abel and maintained the worship of Yahweh, humanity survived the disaster.
Eve’s pronouncement at Cain’s birth likely indicates he was the firstborn. For a woman to call her newborn son “a man” is just as strange in Hebrew as it is in English. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Eve would have no other word to describe her first child. She named him Cain (qayin) because it sounds like the verb qanah (“to acquire”). That she acquired him “with Yahweh” probably means she recognized her son as a gift she could not have gained without Yahweh’s help.1
Sometime later, Eve gave birth to Abel, who may or may not have been the second child. Though Scripture mentions only three sons of Adam and Eve, this doesn’t mean they had no other children. Cain, Abel, and Seth are simply the only ones relevant to the story. The text says little about Abel, and he never speaks. But the frequent reminders that he was Cain’s brother highlight his tragic role.
Cain’s Gift
Now Abel was a shepherd, and Cain worked the ground. After a while, Cain brought some of his produce to Yahweh as a gift. Abel also brought the fatty parts of some of the firstborn from his flock. Yahweh was pleased with Abel and his gift, but he was not pleased with Cain and his gift.
When Cain and Abel grew up, Cain worked the ground to grow food, and Abel took care of sheep and goats. God had not yet permitted eating meat, so the animals were probably kept for other byproducts necessary for the family’s survival, such as wool, skins, and milk.2 At some point, both brothers brought some of the fruits of their labor as a gift for Yahweh. While Abel’s gift pleased Yahweh, Cain’s did not.
The rejection of Cain’s gift had nothing to do with the fact that it wasn’t an animal sacrifice.3 Animal sacrifice was required for sin offerings, but the Hebrew word minhah (“gift, tribute”) never refers to a sin offering. It usually refers to an offering of flour or unleavened bread.4 It can also refer to any gift given to gain the favor of a superior. In fact, Abel’s gift wouldn’t have been accepted as a sin offering either. He gave only the fatty parts of his animals, whereas a sin offering would have required the entire animal.5
The problem with Cain’s gift becomes clear by comparing it with Abel’s accepted gift. Abel gave the best parts (the fat) of his best animals (the firstborn), knowing that God could reward him with even better. He gave to God first and received God’s blessing on his flock. Cain, on the other hand, gave some of his produce but not the best he had. By keeping the best for himself, he failed to acknowledge Yahweh as the source of everything. This attitude prevented him from receiving a blessing on his fields.
Temptation
So Cain became very angry and dejected. Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why do you look so dejected? If you do what is right, will you not be restored? But if you do not do what is right, sin is a crouching animal at the door. It desires you, but you must master it!”
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Cain reacted to God’s displeasure with a mix of anger and depression. He resented his brother for showing him up and blamed him for his rejection. Seeing the change in Cain’s attitude, Yahweh warned him about the dangers of indulging his turbulent emotions.
As he had when he confronted Cain’s parents, Yahweh began by asking Cain a series of questions meant to make him think about his actions and bring him to repentance.6 Cain had no reason to be upset because Abel was not responsible for what happened. Cain had only himself to blame. But Yahweh assured Cain that his rejection was neither permanent nor dependent on anything his brother did. Restoration to a right relationship with God was in Cain’s grasp if he would only choose to do right.
Yahweh’s assurance also came with a warning. If Cain refused to do right, sin was crouching at the door like a predatory animal stalking its prey.7 It desired to devour Cain. This graphic portrayal of the power of temptation came with the promise that he could master it if he tried. Yahweh encouraged Cain to take control of his emotions and resist the temptation that sought to destroy him.
Yahweh’s words to Cain mirror his words to Eve in Genesis 3:16. Both verses use the Hebrew words teshuqah (“desire”) and mashal (“to rule over, master”). In this way, Yahweh reminded Cain of his mother’s punishment. But while Eve had to be talked into sinning, Cain refused to be talked out of it.8
Murder
Then Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. When they were in the field, Cain rose against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
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As with Adam and Eve’s sin, the text recounts Cain’s sin with shocking brevity. One moment, Cain and Abel were talking. The next, Abel was dead, killed by his own brother. By ignoring Yahweh’s warning, Cain left himself vulnerable to sin, just as his parents had. At the opportune time, when the brothers were alone in the fields away from the family’s home, temptation pounced and simultaneously destroyed them both, Abel physically and Cain spiritually.
Cain spoke to Abel before killing him, but the Hebrew text does not record what he said. The emphasis is not on his conversation with Abel but on his two conversations with God, one before and one after the murder. This bracketing technique marks Yahweh, who was suddenly bereaved of two of his children, as the primary victim of Cain’s crime.9
Cain’s Punishment
Then Yahweh asked Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”
“I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?”
“What have you done!” exclaimed Yahweh. “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! Now you are cursed more than the ground that opened its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield a harvest for you. Instead, you will wander aimlessly over the earth.”
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Cain left Abel’s body out in the fields and seems to have assumed no one would ever know what he did. But Yahweh confronted him and once again tried to bring him to repentance. “Where is Abel?” parallels “Where are you?” in Genesis 3:9.10 But while Adam and Eve told the truth, Cain responded with a bold-faced lie. He knew exactly where Abel was. But he didn’t realize that God also knew. Yahweh quickly disabused him of that delusion.
Cain’s snarky retort reveals a complete lack of remorse. He challenged the very appropriateness of God’s question by denying any responsibility for Abel’s whereabouts or well-being. Indeed, had he truly not known where Abel was, he would not have been responsible for his adult brother. No one in Scripture is ever commanded to “guard” a brother. But once again, Yahweh moved right past the façade to the heart of the issue. The chance for repentance had past and the time for judgment had come.
Because of Adam’s sin, God had cursed the ground, forcing Adam to cultivate the unfruitful earth in order to provide food for himself and his family.11 Cain was “cursed more than the ground.” His punishment was much worse than his father’s. The ground would no longer produce food for him no matter how hard he worked. This would force him to wander the earth in a desperate search for sustenance far from the support of his family, who he now knew would certainly find out about his crime.
Cain’s Sign
Cain replied to Yahweh, “My punishment is too great to bear! Look! Today you’re driving me away from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your presence and will wander aimlessly over the earth. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”
“On the contrary, anyone who kills Cain will receive sevenfold vengeance.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain so no one who found him would strike him. Then Cain left Yahweh’s presence and lived in the land of wandering, east of Eden.
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The sudden realization that his sin was known caused Cain to panic. While his parents and even the snake had faced their punishments with silent acceptance, Cain objected that his punishment was too harsh. He added two punishments God had not decreed: expulsion from God’s presence and execution should anyone find him. Cain still failed to understand the universal presence of Yahweh, the same mistake that had led him to believe he could hide Abel’s murder.
Cain’s claim that anyone who found him would kill him is not evidence of the existence of people not descended from Adam and Eve. On the contrary, Cain had no reason to fear unrelated strangers, and a larger population would have given him a place to hide. He was afraid precisely because anyone he might meet would be a close relative of Abel responsible for avenging his murder.12 Cain and Abel were both adults with their own occupations and, by this time, certainly had other siblings (including Cain’s wife13). Cain was afraid of his own family—and with good reason!
Though Cain certainly deserved death, Yahweh promised it wouldn’t happen. “Sevenfold vengeance” was not an explanation of what would happen to the person who killed Cain but rather an assurance that he wouldn’t be killed.14 As God protected Adam and Eve with proper clothing before sending them away, he protected Cain with a sign. The text doesn’t explain what the sign was, but it warned others that Cain was under Yahweh’s protection.
Just like his parents before him, Cain left his home and moved east, a direction associated with humanity’s steady movement away from Eden, the land of promise, and a right relationship with the Creator.15
The Line of Cain
Cain made love to his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. At that time, he was building a settlement, so he named it Enoch after his son. Enoch fathered Irad, Irad fathered Mehujael, Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.
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At some point in Cain’s wanderings, he decided to build a settlement. The Hebrew word ʿir can refer to a settlement of any size, from a small village to a sprawling metropolis. Cain did not build an entire city by himself, just a home that could grow as his family grew. But why would the aimless wanderer build any kind of permanent settlement?
The birth of Cain’s son Enoch while he was building this settlement provides the most likely explanation. Cain’s wife, who went with him when he left the family home, would not have been able to travel while pregnant and raising small children. Cain’s family simply needed a safe place to live while he looked for food. His inability to grow food for his family forced him to wander continuously, but God never forbade him from building a homestead. The settlement does not necessarily mean Cain stopped wandering.
Cain’s family flourished despite the hardships imposed on them by his sin. Enoch grew up and had children of his own, and the line of Cain continued for four unremarkable generations. But the seeds of sin and unrepentance bore fruit in Cain’s descendant Lamech, a man who epitomized the wickedness and violence that brought about the flood.
Civilization
Lamech married two wives. The first was named Adah, and the second was named Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the predecessor of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother was named Jubal. He was the predecessor of all who play the lyre and flute. Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who sharpened bronze and iron into all kinds of tools. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
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Though Genesis portrays Lamech himself in a completely negative light, his children are credited with major cultural and technological advances. Even in the line of Cain, there is good mixed with the bad.
Jabal was the first to adopt a nomadic lifestyle.16 His brother, Jubal, was the first musician. Their half brother, Tubal-Cain, was a metalworker who made “all kinds of tools” out of bronze and iron. The verb “sharpened” suggests he made both agricultural tools and weaponry. Their sister, Naamah, also likely had some cultural importance, but what her role might have been is no longer known.
This passage describes only the rudimentary beginnings of technology and does not contradict the archeological record, which doesn’t go back this far. Cold-forged iron was used long before the so-called Iron Age, which archaeologists define not by the initial use of iron but by its widespread replacement of bronze.17 This didn’t occur until the development of far more advanced metallurgy than what is described here.
More importantly, this primitive civilization existed only in a localized area for a few generations before it was completely wiped out by the flood. After the flood, humanity had to start over from scratch.
Lamech’s Boast
Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice.
Wives of Lamech, listen to what I have to say.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a youth for striking me.
Seven times Cain is avenged,
and Lamech seventy-seven!”
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The stories of Cain and Lamech exemplify how quickly sin spiraled out of control after Adam and Eve’s rebellion. Cain’s sin was exponentially worse than his parents’ in every way, from the crime itself, to his attempted cover-up, to his reaction to punishment. But even though Cain could not control his emotions, a genuine—though sorely misguided—desire for Yahweh’s acceptance and blessing seems to underlie his actions. But in the story of Cain’s descendant Lamech, Yahweh doesn’t appear at all.
The first indication of Lamech’s complete disregard for God comes from his polygamous marriage. Yahweh created woman as man’s counterpart and marriage as the way to unite husband and wife (not wives) as one.18 Lamech was one of the first, possibly the first, to distort the created order by marrying two women.
Worse, like Cain, Lamech was a murderer. But while Cain tried to hide his crime, Lamech openly boasted about his. That the boast took the form of a poem that could easily be remembered and recited only stresses Lamech’s disdain for authority. Lamech’s boast is a song of praise written to himself.
Within the poem, the man and the youth are the same person.19 The seventy-seven-fold vengeance is this murder as retribution for an insignificant injury. While Cain accepted Yahweh’s protection, Lamech took the situation into his own hands. He did not need God because he would protect himself. With this decree of ultimate self-sufficiency, Cain’s line disappeared from history.
Seth
Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth because “God has appointed another offspring for me in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”
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After completing the account of Cain’s line, Genesis shifts back several generations to the time shortly after Abel’s death when Eve gave birth to Seth. This begins a pattern in Genesis, which repeatedly deals with the line of the rejected firstborn before continuing the primary narrative that follows the chosen line of the younger brother.
Once again, Eve used strange language to describe her son.20 She called newborn Cain “a man,” and she called newborn Seth an “offspring.” By using the Hebrew word zeraʿ (“offspring, seed”), Eve expressed her expectation that Seth (sheth) was the one God had appointed (shath) as the offspring who would replace Abel and ultimately defeat the snake that had tricked her.21 His would be the chosen line.
From here on out, Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament focus on the line of the promised offspring and how God preserved it, against all odds, through flood, barrenness, famine, slavery, genocide, rebellion, and many other obstacles.
The Beginning of Prayer
Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. It was around this time that people began to call on Yahweh’s name.
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When Seth grew up, he also had a son and named him Enosh. Around the time of Enosh’s birth, a major shift occurred in humanity’s relationship with Yahweh. The Hebrew phrase qaraʾ beshem (“to call on the name of”) has several meanings, including “to name,” “to summon,” and “to invoke.” Most often, it refers to a call to action. For example, in Exodus 31:2, Yahweh called on the name of Bezalel, the artist he had chosen and empowered to create the detail work required for the tent of meeting.
When humans call on the name of a deity, it refers to worship and prayer, a call for the deity to act on behalf of the petitioner. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to call on the name of their god while he called on the name of Yahweh. In other words, they would pray to their respective gods to see which one would answer by sending fire to burn the sacrifice on his altar.
As sin rapidly spiraled out of control, it created a further disconnect between Yahweh and his children that ended the face-to-face communication that even Cain and Abel enjoyed. But some still remained faithful to Yahweh, and they introduced prayer and formal worship as a new means of communicating with him. Their continued humble reliance on God starkly contrasts with Lamech’s prideful self-reliance. The line of Cain followed their own hearts and perished. The line of Seth followed Yahweh and survived.
- Hamilton, Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17, 221; Kidner, Genesis, 79–80; Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 101–102.
- See A New Reality.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 97; Walton, “Genesis,” 38; Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Genesis 4:1–7.
- See Leviticus 2:1–16.
- Some translations state that Abel gave the best of the firstborn, instead of their fatty parts. The singular helev (“fat”) can metaphorically mean “best of.” But the plural halavim, used here, always refers to the fatty parts of an animal.
- See The Blame Game.
- See Zoomorphism.
- Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 100.
- See Inclusio.
- See The Blame Game.
- See The Man’s Punishment
- Numbers 35:19–21.
- See Nahor and Milcah.
- See Hyperbole.
- Genesis 3:24; 11:2; 13:11; 25:6; Isaiah 2:6; Jonah 4:5.
- Though Abel raised flocks (sheep and goats), he did not raise larger livestock and was not a nomad.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Iron Age,” last modified February 24, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/Iron-Age; Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Metallurgy,” by Charles Burroughs Gill et al., last modified December 26, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/science/metallurgy; HISTORY, “Iron Age,” last modified September 27, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/iron-age.
- Genesis 2:24; see Woman; The Institution of Marriage.
- See Parallelism.
- See A New Generation.
- See The Snake’s Punishment.