Ray Mossholder: Genesis 4 - Wycliffe Bible Translators with Ray

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Genesis 4 – Wycliffe Bible Translators with Ray

Join Ray as he reads from Wycliffe translators of the Old Testament with commentary.

Chapter 4 v1 Then Adam lay with his wife Eve. Eve became pregnant and she had a baby. She called him Cain. She said, ‘With the Lord’s help, I have gained a man.’ v2 Later she had another baby, Cain’s brother Abel.

Now Abel looked after sheep and Cain worked with the soil. v3 After some time, Cain brought some fruit from his land. He brought it because he intended to offer the fruit to the Lord. v4But Abel brought some pieces of meat with fat. They were from some sheep in his flock. Those sheep were born first, before the other sheep were born. The Lord was pleased with Abel. And he was pleased with Abel’s offering. v5 But he was not pleased with Cain. And he was not pleased with Cain’s *offering. So Cain was very angry. And his face showed that he had a lot of hate.

v6 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you so angry? Why does your face show a lot of hate? If you do the right thing, I will certainly accept you. v7 But if you do not do the right thing, sin can come in. Sin is like an animal that is waiting at your door. It has bent down low on the ground, so that it is ready to catch you. Sin wants to overcome you, but you must rule over it.’

v8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel. He killed Abel.

v9 Then the *Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ Cain replied, ‘I do not know. Should I be looking after him?’

v10 The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen. Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. v11 Now you have a curse. And I am forcing you to go away from the land. You killed your brother and you made his blood fall to the ground. And the earth received his blood. v12 So when you work with the soil, it will not produce crops for you any longer. You will wander about on the earth and you will have no rest.’

v13 Cain said to the *Lord, ‘You are punishing me too severely. v14 Today you are forcing me to go away from the land. You are sending me away from you for always. I will wander about on the earth and I will have no rest. Anyone that finds me will kill me.’

v15 But the Lord said to Cain, ‘For that reason, if anyone kills Cain, I will punish the killer 7 times.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain. Therefore, if anyone found him, they would not kill him. v16 So Cain went away from God. And he lived in the region called Nod, which was east from Eden.

v17 Cain lay with his wife. She became *pregnant. And she had a baby, whom she called Enoch. Cain built a city. He called the city Enoch because of his son’s name. v18 Enoch was Irad’s father. Irad was Mehujael’s father. Mehujael was Methushael’s father. Methushael was Lamech’s father.

v19 Lamech had two wives. One wife was called Adah, and the other wife was called Zillah. v20 Zillah had a baby called Jabal. Jabal was the father of those that live in tents. They also look after cattle. v21 Jabal’s brother was called Jubal. Jubal was the father of all those that play the harp and *flute. v22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain. Tubal-Cain taught all those that worked with the metals called bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

v23 Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah, ‘Listen to me. My wives, listen carefully. I have killed a man because I received an injury from him. He was a young man that hurt me. v24 If any person hurts Cain, God will punish that person 7 times. So if any person hurts me (Lamech), God will punish that person 77 times.’

v25 Adam lay with his wife again and she had a baby son. So she called him Seth. She said, ‘Cain killed Abel. But God has given to me another child instead of Abel.’ v26 Seth also had a son. He called his son Enosh. Then people began to call the *Lord’s name.

Adam and Eve had two sons, called Cain and Abel. God had promised in Genesis 3:15 that Eve’s descendant would free people from the power of sin. So perhaps Eve hoped that these descendants would achieve this. If so, their lives would disappoint her. Cain, who was the first child ever to be born, became a murderer. And Abel, who tried to serve God, died at a very young age. Their lives show the effects of sin.

The most important event in Cain’s and Abel’s lives happened when they decided to give a gift to God. After Adam and Eve sinned, God killed an animal. Then, God used its skin as clothes, in order to cover Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). Sin required a sacrifice. Abel seemed to understand this principle. He realised that his own efforts could not please God. Something had to die. That is also why Jesus had to die for our sins. Jesus is like the perfect lamb of God (1 Peter 1:18-19). Nobody can please God by his or her own efforts. Instead, we must humbly confess our sin to God. God forgives us because of Jesus.

But Cain did not realise that he needed to bring a sacrifice. He chose some fruit as a gift to God. And Cain’s attitude was not humble. When God refused Cain’s gift, Cain was very angry. Cain did not try to find out his error. And he did not offer a sacrifice. Instead, he felt very jealous. And that is why he killed Abel.

Cain’s descendants were wicked people. They had many skills, but they refused to serve God. But Eve had another son. And his descendants began to think about God again.

Notes on the verses

Cain and Abel, 4:1-16

Verse 1 Adam ‘lay with his wife’. In the Hebrew, it is ‘Adam knew his wife.’ The Hebrew name ‘Adam’ is the same as the Hebrew word for ‘the man’. The Hebrew name for ‘Eve’ means ‘alive’.

In *Hebrew, people’s names had meanings. So did places’ names. The writers often ‘played’ with words. In the same sentence, they often used two words that sounded nearly the same.

The name ‘Cain’ means ‘produced’.

Verse 2 The name ‘Abel’ means ‘breath’, ‘with a short life’, or ‘without meaning’. Maybe this refers to Abel’s short life.

Verses 3-5 God wanted people to offer to him animals rather than fruit. Later, people sacrificed animals to God. The animals’ death was like a description or picture for us. It shows us how Jesus would die. In that way, he would suffer the punishment for our sins. Abel took trouble to give God the best gift that he could give. The first *lambs were usually the healthiest ones and they were usually the fattest ones.

But Cain’s gift was not the *sacrifice of an animal. He brought some fruit that he had produced on his farm. He thought that his own efforts were enough to please God.

God knew what Cain and Abel were thinking. God showed Cain that he did not accept Cain’s offering. God showed Abel that he accepted Abel’s lamb. But we do not know how God showed those facts to them.

Verse 7 The writer describes sin as if it is a wild animal. That ‘animal’ was bending down low on the ground and it was waiting. It was ready to jump suddenly onto Cain. And then it would catch Cain and it would overcome him. In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter writes this: ‘The devil is your enemy. He is like a lion. A lion walks about and he makes a loud noise. He walks about because he is looking for someone to eat.’ God wanted Cain to do the right thing. Cain too could kill an animal as a sacrifice to God. Then God would be pleased with Cain. But Cain refused to live in the way that God wanted him to live. Cain’s attitudes were still wrong.

Verse 8 An important Hebrew text does not include the words, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ But many other Hebrew texts have it. The story about Abel’s death is very brief. We realise how bad it was. Cain killed his own brother, Abel, because Abel was a good man. And, Cain killed him because Cain’s deeds were evil (1 John 3:12).

Verse 9 God had known where Adam and Eve were hiding. But God had asked where they were. Then they would be able to say that they were sorry. They should have been sorry because they had not obeyed God. Similarly, God asked Cain what he (Cain) had done. Then he could say that he was sorry. But Cain was not sorry and he lied. But God knows what we are really like. So we cannot lie to God.

Verses 10-14 God has made people in his image. It is very evil to kill another person. We must allow God to be the judge over people. Later, God told the Israelites how to punish murderers. He gave exact rules to the Israelites about that. The word ‘cries’ here is a very strong word in Hebrew. It is like a man’s cry for food when he is starving. Or it is like a woman’s cry when someone is raping her. Abel himself could not still cry aloud, because Cain had killed him. But now it was as if Abel’s blood was crying aloud instead of Abel. Blood means murder, which God hates. God hears his people’s desperate cries. Abel’s body had died. So God had not saved Abel from that. But God punished Cain because Cain had killed Abel.

Verses 15-16 ‘More than seven times’. We do not know what ‘seven times’ means here. Perhaps it just means ‘very much’. In the Bible, numbers often have special meanings. The number 7 means that something is complete.

We do not know what Cain’s mark was. The name ‘Cain’ is like the Hebrew word for ‘shall receive punishment’. All Cain’s life, the mark reminded him about his sin. And it reminded him also that God was still protecting him. By means of that mark, God warned other people not to hurt Cain.

We do not know how many people there were on earth. The family grew quickly.

‘Nod’ means that someone is ‘wandering’.

Cain’s family, 4:17-24

Verses 17-19 We do not know who Cain’s wife was. Adam and Eve may have had other children.

It is not clear whether Cain built a city. It is possible that his son Enoch built it. The word for ‘city’ might in fact mean a very small place.

Verses 20-22 Cain’s *descendants had great skills. But they opposed God. And Lamech himself was a very evil man.

Verse 23 Lamech was proud about his sin. He had killed a young man (perhaps even a boy) because the boy had hurt him! In the New Testament, Jesus told Peter how many times he (Peter) should forgive people. It was a very large number, ‘70 times 7’. Maybe Jesus was thinking about Lamech then.

Adam’s family from Adam to Noah, 4:25-5:32

Verse 25 ‘Seth’ means that someone had ‘given’ something. God had given Seth to Eve. In other words, Seth was born. God had not forgotten his promise. God had promised that someone from among Adam’s *descendants would save the earth’s people (Genesis 3:15).

Verse 26 People began to ‘call the Lord’s name’. People began to think about God. That may mean that they prayed to him. It may mean that they talked about him. And they talked also about everything that he did. It may mean that they possibly called themselves ‘the Lord’s people’.

This chapter is very important. Its writer tells us about people that really lived. That is why it is important. He tells us what some people were like at that time. These events really happened.