4:19-24- 19Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. 22Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.T
23Lamech said to his wives,
"Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
24If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times."
[ T - OL ]
For the first time we see polygamy in practice; we are further from Eden than ever. Cain's genealogy in the last two verses had proceeded vertically, from father to son, and reaching in the seventh generation, Lamech. Now a horizontal genealogy takes over, naming the siblings born to Lamech: three sons—Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain—all entrepreneurs in their own right, and a daughter, Naamah. All three names of the sons derive from a single root, jbl. The noun yebul "primarily refers to the produce which grows up directly from the ground,"1 —reflective, perhaps, of a heart that remembers it had been driven from the ground, and a longing for that from which it was banished? Or is the verb that is here behind the names? Yabal means 'to bring' as in someone bringing a gift to the Lord (Psm 68:29; 76:11; Zeph 3:10), and passively as 'taken,' as the golden and silver vessels from the temple in Jerusalem and taken to Babylon (Ezra 6:5). If so, then their names would remind Cain, ever so painfully, that if only he had brought (yabal) Yahweh a gift as pleasing to Him as his brother had done, he—Cain—would not be where he is.
If things sound depressing with the names of his sons, Cain seemed better off with the women in his life. If, as some commentators have suggested, Adah means 'ornament" or 'pretty' and Zillah possibly 'sweet voice,'2 then he had both a lovely face and a sweet voice for company. And his daughter—mentioned almost only in passing—is Naamah, "pleasant."
The distance from Eden got even further with Lamech's boast to his wives. His great grandfather had been a killer; Lamech beat him at it, killing a young man just because the lad wounded him. The sense of the two verses is difficult to ascertain. Is Lamech boasting here (as is often understood): "Come on. Bring it on. Seventy-seven times? I can take it." Or is he lamenting the possible fate of his mistake in killing the young man: "O dear, I have done this. The consequences will be terrible!" Our natural inclination to do psychological profiles on biblical characters tends to incline us towards the former. However we understand it, it paints a harrowing picture of the life of this line of killers. Of them we hear no more in Scriptures (except as a reminder of Cain's faithlessness in Heb 11:4; 1 Jn 3:12 & Jud 1:11).
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2018