th me shall kill me... His guilty conscience made
him fear his own brothers and nephews; of whom, by this time, there might
be a good number upon the earth; which had now endured near 130 years;
as may be gathered from Gen. 5.3, compared with chap. 4.25, though in
the compendious account given in the scriptures, only Cain and Abel are
mentioned.

4:15. And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not so be: but whosoever
shall kill Cain, shall be punished sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark
upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him.

Set a mark, etc... The more common opinion of the interpreters of holy
writ supposes this mark to have been a trembling of the body; or a
horror and consternation in his countenance.

4:16. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a
fugitive on the earth at the east side of Eden.

4:17. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth
Henoch: and he built a city, and called the name thereof by the name of
his son Henoch.

His wife... She was a daughter of Adam, and Cain's own sister; God
dispensing with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind
could not otherwise be propagated. He built a city, viz... In process of
time, when his race was multiplied, so as to be numerous enough to
people it. For in the many hundred years he lived, his race might be
multiplied even to millions.

4:18. And Henoch begot Irad, and Irad begot Maviael, and Maviael begot
Mathusael, and Mathusael begot Lamech,

4:19. Who took two wives: the name of the one was Ada, and the name of
the other Sella.

4:20. And Ada brought forth Jabel: who was the father of such as dwell
in tents, and of herdsmen.

4:21. And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of them that
play upon the harp and the organs.

4:22. Sella also brought forth Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and
artificer in every work of brass and iron. And the sister of Tubalcain
was Noema.

4:23. And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella: Hear my voice, ye
wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech: for I have slain a man to the
wounding of myself, and a stripling to my own bruising.

I have slain a man, etc... It is the tradition of the Hebrews, that
Lamech in hunting slew Cain, mistaking him for a wild beast; and that
having discovered what he had done, he beat so unmercifully the youth,
by whom he was led into that mistake, that he died of the blows.

4:24. Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken f