Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. Irad was born to Enoch. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.“
(Genesis 4:17-18)

Cain had a wife. He didn’t pick her up in the Land of Nod. He took her with him. She was clearly one of his sisters, one of the other children of Adam and Eve (Genesis 5:4). I have no idea what the original plan was. How childbirth and spouses were going to be designed. What I do know is that after the Fall, there are things God approved of and things He did not. They NEVER changed. Being with a close relative like a sister was NOT God’s plan NOR God’s best. The Law clearly spelled that out. But prior to the Law there was no punishment – He did not impart their sins to them because they didn’t know better (Romans 5:13). Because of OUR free will, we can make choices that are NOT the best. I don’t know what God did or did not tell them because it isn’t recorded in scripture. But since they were the only humans on the planet at that point, where else could Cain have gotten a wife?

Cain seems to have so thoroughly left the Lord that he abandoned his profession. Since he could not farm in a single place, he instead defied the Lord and built a city. The curse said travel, he said no. This is the same hard headedness that we see in the Babel account where the people were refusing to spread throughout the Earth as God commanded. Cain founded a city. He founded commerce. He had sons and daughters and THEY had sons and daughters and all of them could till the soil and be creative in ways that Cain was not. It seems to me from scripture that Cain turned from God and then walled himself up in a city which he never left. Indeed, while Cain’s LINE was creative, the only thing Cain seems to EVER have made were walls to keep himself in.

However, not everyone shares that interpretation. The sage Kli Yakar writes of these verses: ‘And he was building a city. It doesn’t say “and he built” but rather he was building in the present tense, to indicate that he was continuously building all his days and his building was never completed. For this is their foolish way — that anyone who loves earthly possessions like Cain and his companions is forever building and proceeding, and can never complete his building all his days, because he never has enough of what he lacks. If he has one hundred, he desires two hundred, as is well known about the nature of all those who love money. Therefore, he is forever building and going, and all his days he has no rest, but rather is restless and wandering on the earth like Cain who was restless and wandering. So too is every lover of money — restless and wandering, sitting at home little, as most of his days he chases after wealth as if he were hunting a partridge in the hills. He runs with feet like deer through the desert, mountain, and lowland, crossing ocean paths, all the days of his life — these being the nights too, as even at night his heart does not rest. For he will go to all dangerous places to attain what his soul loves; they will seek but not find, and will never reach their goal, rather all their days they are building and going — cities of poverty that endanger their soul and body, leaving for others the wealth and walls which they built and planted. And a sign for this matter: In the alphabet, the letters spelling “poor” are adjacent and follow the letters spelling “money,” indicating that all who love money are forever poor in their mindset.’

It is an interesting exercise to compare the names of Cain’s line with the names of Seth’s line. They have VERY similar names. But in parallel, Cain’s descendants were not a very upright group. Seth’s line is full of righteous men. Cain’s descendants made things, but also engaged in sinful behaviour and ideals – which is seen best with Lamech.