| 21 And his brother's name was the sister of Tubal-cain was Jubal: he was the father of all Naamah. | such as handle the harp and organ. 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and r Rom. 4. 11, 12. habiter of the tent and cattle.' Chal 'the master.' The original author, deviser, or founder of any particular craft or calling is termed the father of such as follow it. Jabal set the first example of that unsettled, nomadic mode of life which was adopted in after ages by those whose property consisted principally in flocks and herds, and who from residing in tents instead of more permanent habitations could easily transfer themselves from one region to another as the prospect of water or pasturage should chance to invite. In later times the descendants of Ishmael, the wandering Bedouin Arabs, have been peculiarly noted for these roving habits.-- ¶ And of such as have cattle. Gr. 'feeders of cattle.' The literal import of the original is possession, from the fact that in the early ages of the world men's principal possessions consisted in flocks and herds. The 'father of such as have cattle' is the title of him who first set the example of keeping and managing cattle, or who followed the shepherd's occupation. 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. David is expressly described as playing upon it with his hand; but it appears from Josephus that it was also struck or played upon with a plectrum or bow. It seems to have been light and portable, as we find David playing upon it, as he danced before the ark. It was called by the Hebrews, 'the pleasant instrument,' and was not only used in their religious solemnities, but also in their private entertainments and occasions of enjoyment. The organ (175 o0gab) certainly could not resemble the modern instrument of that name. It is supposed to have been a kind of flute, composed of one or two, and afterwards of about seven pipes of reeds, of unequal length and thickness, joined together; being nearly identical with the pipe of Pan among the Greeks, or that simple instrument called a 'mouthorgan,' which is still in common use in some countries of Europe. 22. Tubal-cain. From this name comes, by very obvious derivation, the Greek Vulcan the name of the fabled god of smiths.- -T Instructor. Heb. 'whetter or sharpener;' he whose precepts and example first set the ingenuity of men at work in fabricating the various implements of brass and iron which are so indispensable in the arts of agriculture, architecture, and the different mechanical occupations. 21. The father of all such as handle the harp and the organ. Chal. 'The master of all that play on the psaltery and of such as know music.' The Heb. term for organ has the import of loveliness or delight, but upon the precise form and construction, of these instruments we cannot pronounce with much certainty. They are perhaps general terms for all stringed and wind instruments. The harp (11 kinnoor) of the Hebrews seems to have resembled the modern instrument in its form. It had ten strings, and in 1 Sam. 16. 23, ❘ stood, not as relating a matter of fact 23. I have slain a man to my wounding, &c. The Heb. particle rendered 'for' sometimes has a conditional meaning, equivalent to if, although, supposing that. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Lamech's words are to be under by Eve, but doubtless with Adam's concurrence, implying especially that he was substituted for his slain brother. -T Another seed. Another child; the term seed being applied to a single individual, as it is also Gen. 21. 13, and 38. 8. This usage confirms the apostle's argument, Gal. 3. 16, 'He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.' which had actually happened, but as intimating the consequences of such a fact, provided it should happen. 'Suppose that when designedly and dangerously wounded by a murderous weapon, in the hand of a ruffian, I should slay my assailant, whether a grown man or a daring youth, yet as it would be done in self defence, I should not incur the guilt of murder. For if the man that should have killed Cain, who-The manner in which the mother of slew his brother without provocation, mankind speaks on this occasion is were to be punished seven-fold, then he much in favour of her personal religion. who should undertake to inflict ven- The language implies, that though at first geance upon me for slaying a man in she had doated upon Cain, yet as the bromy own defence, shall be punished sev- thers grew up, and developed their resenty and seven-fold.' Thus one sinner pective characters, Abel was preferred. takes liberty to sin from the suspension He was the child in whom all the hopes of judgment towards another. The of the family seem to have concentraspeech was prompted, perhaps, by La- ted; and therefore when he fell a sacrimech's having witnessed the mischiev- fice to his brother's cruelty, it was conous effects of some of his sons' newly-sidered as a very heavy loss. She was invented instruments of iron and brass, not without a son when Seth was which probably began to be wielded to | born, for Cain was yet alive; but he the injury or destruction of human life. The Chal. renders the passage, 'For I have not killed a man that I should bear sin for him; nor destroyed a young man that my seed should be consumed for him.' The speech is in hemistichs, according to the genius of Hebrew poetry, and, as it seems, not written by Moses, but handed down by tradition. Thus ends the account of the murderer Cain. We hear no more of his posterity, unless it be as tempters of 'the sons of God,' till they were all swept away by the deluge! 25. Called his name Seth. Heb. set, put, appointed; a name bestowed was considered as none, or as worse than none, and therefore when Seth was born, she hoped to find in him a successor to Abel. And so it proved; for his was doubtless the family in which the true religion was preserved in after ages. Heb. 26. Called his name Enos. 2 Enosh; i. e. sick, weak, sorrowful, miserable; so called perhaps from the prevailing degenerate state of the world at that time. T Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The true import of these words, as read in the original, is somewhat difficult to be determined. As the Heb. term for 'began' will admit of being rendered profaned or profanely began, the Jewish interpreters for the most part understand it of the commencement of idolatry, which consists in profanely calling upon and worshipping idols under the name and titles of the true God, and thus as marking the beginnings of that great degeneracy which finally led to the destruction of the earth and its guilty inhabitants by the flood. Accordingly, the Chaldee Targum reads it,' Then the sons of men left off from praying in the name of the Lord,' or, 'became profane so that they prayed not.' The more common interpretation, however, is, that about this time there began to be a more marked separation on the part of the pious from the ungodly, that the name of the Lord began to be invoked in a more open and public manner, and the various ceremonies of his worship to be more solemnly observed. Adam and his pious offspring had undoubtedly before this maintained the worship of God both in their families and their closets; but till the human race were considerably multiplied there was no occasion for what may be called public worship. But when the families became so numerous that they were obliged to separate, then it was necessary to call them together at stated times and seasons, that, by forming different congregations, they might all receive instruction at once, and keep up in their minds an habitual reverence for God. 'Calling upon the name of the Lord' is an expression elsewhere used to denote all the appropriate acts and exercises of the stated worship of God. Gen. 12. 8.-13. 4.-21. 33. 1 Chron, 16. 8. Ps. 105. 1. et al. Comp. Acts, 9. 14. The marginal rendering, for which there is also some ground, is, 'Then began men to be called by the name of the Lord,' i. e. then began a portion of men (viz. the children of Seth) to be distinguished from others, the descendants of Cain, by taking upon them the profession of God's holy name, and by being recognised as his true worshippers. A similar phraseology obtains Is. 44. 5, 'One shall say, I am the Lord's and another shall call himself by the name (NP D) of Jacob.' Ch. 48. 1, 'Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel;' i. e. who profess to belong to the people of Israel and to be of the same religion. Perhaps the distinction of 'sons of God' and 'sons of men,' alluded to in the following chapter, then began more generally to prevail. On the whole, however, we incline to the opinion that the sense of profane invocation is really conveyed by the original word; but that the other idea also of a pious profession of the name and worship of Jehovah is directly and necessarily inferred from it, for the f ct of the increasing profaneness and irreligion of one portion of the race would naturally tend to produce a more public and decided adherence to the worship of God by the other, and the Heb. idiom, we believe, allows us to consider both facts to be alluded to by one and the same term.-In resect to this period of the sacred histor we may properly cite the words of e celebrated Jewish writer Maimonic‹ s as translated by Ainsworth :-'Ine days of Enos the sons of Adam err 1 with great error, and the counsel of the wise men of that age became brutish; and their error was this: They said, forasmuch as God hath created these stars and spheres to govern the world, and set them on high, and imparted honour unto them, and they are ministers that ininister before him; it is meet that men should laud, and glorify, and give them honour. For this is the will of God, that we might magnify and honour whomsoever he magnifieth and honoureth, even as a king would have them magnified that stand before him. When this thing was come up into their heart, they be gan to build temples unto the stars, and to offer sacrifices unto them, and to laud and glorify them with words, and to worship before them, that they might, in their evil opinion, obtain favour of the Creator. And this was the root of idolatry.'-Lightfoot supposes that Noah is called in 2 Pet. 2. 5, 'the eighth person' in reference to these times, viz. the eighth in succession from Enos, in whose days the world began to be profane. Otherwise it may be rendered the 'eighth preacher.' CHAPTER V. tailed, and which we have already sufficiently explained. Perhaps he designed also to hint at the different mode of production in regard to Adam and his posterity. He came into being from the immediate hand of his Creator; they by generation from him. 2. Called their name Adam. As be fore remarked, ch. 1. 26, Adam is in truth the name of the species, of the whole human race in general, though frequently employed as the appellation of the first man exclusively. It is, however, a striking fact that the Holy Spirit should have adopted a phraseol1. This is the book of the generations ogy which teaches us that it was not of Adam. In other words, this is the merely an individual, but the human narrative or rehearsal of the remarka- race, whose history is given in the pre ble events pertaining to the creation ceding chapters; that it was the hu and the life of Adam (see Gen. 2. 4, on man race which was put upon probathe word 'generations'); and not only tion, was tempted, overcome, and ruinso, but also the list or catalogue of the ed by the fall. It is not easy to connames of his more immediate posterity.ceive of any theological view which Both senses are undoubtedly included shall weaken the force of this solemn in the expression, as the two first ver- consideration. ses imply the first, and the remaining part of the chapter the second. The phrase is at once retrospective and anticipative in its import. It is not the writer's object, however, to give a complete genealogy embracing all Adam's descendants to Noah, but only those through whom the line of the promises 3. Adam lived an hundred and thirty years. During which time he begat many other sons and daughters not enumerated in this catalogue. v. 4. T Begat a son in his own likeness. The word 'son' does not occur in the original, but from what follows it is plain that the sense requires its insertion. Similar omissions are not infrequent in Hebrew. Thus 1 Chron. 18. 6, Then David put in Syria;' i. e. as we learn from 2 Sam. 8. 6, put garrisons in Syria.-T In his own like 5 And all the days that Adam | were nine hundred and twelve lived were nine hundred and thir-years; and he died. go ty years; and he died. 6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and h begat Enos: 7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daugh ters: 8 And all the days of Seth ness. g ch. 3. 19. Heb. 9. 27. h ch. 4. 26. 9 T And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan : 10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughter: 11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years; and he died. Not only like him in the struc-in his family ending in the unnatural ture of his body and the faculties of murder of his second son by a brother's his mind, but like him also in the cor- hand. He was witness also to the ruption of his nature as a sinner. If beginnings of that universal corruption the former only had been intended, it which at last brought on the deluge; might have been said of Cain or Abel, and when he beheld himself the source as well as of Seth. But here the im- of these growing evils, he could not fail, plication is, that Seth, though a good with every succeeding year of his life, man and worthy of being substituted to entertain deeper and more appalling in the place of Abel as the progenitor views of the enormity of his transgresof the promised seed, yet even he was sion and the justice of his sentence. begotten and born in sin, and indebted This would naturally tend in his case, to the sovereign grace of God alone for as in every other, to heighten his estiall the moral excellence which he pos- mate at once of the goodness and the sessed. The evident drift of the sacred severity of God, and endear to him that writer is to hint at the contrast between promise which was the hope of a lost the image in which Adam himself was world. made, and that in which his children were begotten. Adam was created in the image of God, pure, upright, and holy; but after his fall he begat a son like himself sinful, defiled, frail, mortal, and miserable. 'Grace does not run in the blood, but corruption does. A sinner begets a sinner, but a saint does not beget a saint.' Henry. 5. All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Thus our great progenitor, having reached the fifty-sixth year of Lamech's life, and seen his issue in the ninth generation, left the world on which his apostacy had drawn down such dire effects. Besides the griefs which he experienced on account of his personal transgression, he had the mortification to see an early rupture 3-28. Of the genealogy contained in these verses we may remark, (1.) That it is a very honourable one. Not only did the patriarchs and prophets, and the church of God for many ages, descend from it, but the Son of God himself according to the flesh; and to show the fulfilment of the promises and prophecies concerning him is the principal reason of the genealogy having been recorded. (2.) Neither Cain nor Abel has any place in it. Abel was slain before he had any children, and therefore could not; and Cain by his sin had covered his name with infamy, and therefore should not. Adam's posterity, consequently, after the lapse of an hundred and thirty years must begin anew. (3.) The extraordinary length of human life at that period was wisely |