Chapter 4
[Genesis 4:1] -- Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying: I have acquired a man through God. Henceforth, after the delights of paradise and the guilt of the first transgression, the events of this world and mortal life are narrated, when the first-created, who had been made immortal, after receiving the condition of dying, began to generate mortal offspring from themselves, all conceived in iniquity and brought forth from the womb in sins. Cain is interpreted as possession, the reason for which name the mother herself explained when she said: I have acquired a man through God. And with this statement, our mother now teaches us with catholic discernment that although she bore a son subject to the sin of her transgression, nonetheless this which was born a man, that is, which possessed a soul and body, was a gift of divine creation and the first blessing.
[Genesis 4:2] -- Again, she bore his brother Abel. Abel is interpreted as grief or miserable, by which name from the earliest age was foreshadowed the condition of his lamentable untimely death. For, although precious is the death of his saints in the sight of the Lord, having tasted the cup of saving suffering, yet, as far as human view is concerned, it is sufficiently mournful, since we have so far departed from the innocence of the first condition that not even those who were first born on earth as brothers could have peace and concord between themselves, but one envied the other and killed him, while they still existed alone with their parents as masters of the whole world; already clearly foreshadowing that saints in this life would be oppressed by the reprobate and suffer deaths: in this also to be noted that Cain was born first in this life, but Abel was taken away first from this life, because indeed this life is properly the life of the wicked, from which they are precipitated into eternal death; but truly the life of the elect is properly the future life, to which that they may come more happily, they are daily put to death in this life and are considered as sheep for the slaughter.
[Genesis 4:3] -- It came to pass after many days that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground: Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. It is clearly shown that both brothers had faith in God, both either naturally admonished or taught by their parents, knew that gifts should be offered to God, and that the guilt of their father's transgression should be washed away by sacrifices offered to Him: but because they did not offer with an equal mind, their offerings were not equally accepted. For I do not think that Cain sinned in that he either worked the work of a farmer or offered gifts to God from the fruits of the ground, but that he worked with less perfect piety in the care of the flesh, and approached the offering of gifts to God with less perfect devotion. Finally, Noah, a farmer, also worked the land and planted a vineyard: and Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, offered bread and wine from the fruits of the land. Therefore, Cain was not rejected because of the kind of offering. He indeed offered to God from what he himself was accustomed to live by; but he was rejected along with his gifts by Him who looks into the hearts, because of the impious mind of the offerer, as the following words show when it is said:
[Genesis 4:4] -- And the Lord looked with favor upon Abel and his offering, but upon Cain and his offering He did not look with favor. For it does not say: And the Lord looked with favor upon the offerings of Abel and then upon him; but upon the offerings of Cain and then upon him He did not look with favor. It first testifies that the person of the offerer was accepted or not accepted by God, then the gifts were regarded or not regarded. For men are often appeased by the gifts of those with whom they were offended; but God, who is the discerner of thoughts and intentions of the heart, is pleased by no gift more than the pious devotion of the offerer: when He has approved the purity of our mind, then He will also accept the vows of our prayers or works.
[Genesis 4:5] -- And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. How did Cain know that the Lord had looked favorably upon Abel and his offerings, but had turned away his face from himself and his offerings, unless, as some have interpreted, the Lord had set fire to Abel and his sacrifice, but had not set fire to Cain and his sacrifice, that is, by sending fire from the heavens, He accepted Abel's offering, as we often read that this happened to holy men who offered. Cain, on the other hand, had to consume his own sacrifice by fire. For this is what the Apostle seems to mean when he says: By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain to God, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, with God bearing witness to his gifts (Hebrews 11:4). Therefore, God testified to Abel's offerings by fire, by accepting them from the heavens, through which we are also taught by the Apostle's testimony that Abel's offering was made acceptable to God by his faith's devotion, and on the contrary, we must understand that Cain was rejected because he did not serve his Creator with complete faith.
[Genesis 4:6] -- And the Lord said to him: Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door? Why, he says, are you angry, and why are you tortured with envy of your brother, and you cast your eyes down to the ground? If you do well, if you offer your sacrifice with a pure heart, will you not be accepted, with the Lord looking favorably upon you and your sacrifice? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and by having such a doorkeeper, you will always enter and exit with him accompanying you, instead of the Lord guarding your going in and coming out, just as it is said of wisdom: Whoever rises early to seek her will not toil, for he will find her sitting at his doors (Wisdom 6:15). And again: Because she goes about seeking those worthy of her and graciously shows herself to them on their ways, and meets them with all providence (Wisdom 6:17).
[Genesis 4:7] -- But his desire shall be for you, and you shall rule over him. In accordance with the idiom of the Hebrew language, he substituted the indicative mood for the imperative, such as you have innumerable times: You shall love the Lord your God, you shall love your neighbor, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness (Deut. VI, 5), instead of saying: Love, and do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Therefore, he says, his desire shall be for you, and you shall rule over him; you, because you are of free will, I advise you to combat and restrain the desire of sin, and not let it grow over you anymore, but you shall rather rule over it more righteously by living correctly. This passage in the ancient translation reads thus: If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at your door; and its desire shall be for you, but you should rule over it. It is rightly offered to God, who alone must be sacrificed to. But it is not rightly divided when neither places nor times of the offerings nor the things themselves which are offered, nor who offers, nor those to whom the offering is distributed for eating are rightly discerned, so that here division means discernment. In what of these was Cain displeasing to the Lord, it cannot easily be found. But since the Apostle John, when speaking of these brothers, said, Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, but his brother’s were righteous (John III, 13); it is understood therefore that God did not look favorably upon his offering because he wrongly divided it, giving something of his to God, but keeping himself for himself, as all do who follow their own will, not God's, that is, living with a perverse, not a righteous heart; yet they offer to God a gift, with which they think He can be appeased, not to aid them in curing their bad desires, but to fulfill them. Rest, he says, for his desire will be for you, and you shall rule over him. Cease to be consumed by the sin of envy toward your brother, for the conversion of that same sin shall be for you, and your iniquity will rebound upon your own head, and you shall rule over it, having the power through the grace of divine help to repel the evil conceived in your heart. God spoke these things to Cain, in the manner in which He spoke to the first men through a subjected creature as if He was their companion in suitable form. But because he was admonished not inwardly but outwardly, nevertheless he carried out the deliberate crime of killing his brother even after the word of divine admonition or correction; for it follows.
[Genesis 4:8] -- And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go out into the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. And here the treachery of Cain and the innocence of Abel are both demonstrated: the innocence of Abel indeed, in that he simply followed his elder brother as a brother, being commanded, though his brother was inflamed with hostile hatred towards him; the treachery of Cain, in that he leads his brother outside to kill him, as if he could avoid divine presence in a more secret place: not considering, nor understanding that He who knew the secret things of his heart which reproved him, could also see wherever he withdrew and whatever he did in secret.
[Genesis 4:9] -- And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? Not as if ignorant, to learn from him, but as a judge questioning a defendant whom he will punish.
[Genesis 4:9] -- He answered: I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? A foolish and equally arrogant answer; foolish, since he thought he could deceive Him who knew his sinful conscience and accused him of the crime of fratricide even before it was committed, as the knower of secrets; arrogant, since he denied being his brother's keeper in the manner of an obstinate servant, who by manifestation, if any danger threatened, should have taken care of his younger brother, and as the elder should have protected him from impending adversities.
[Genesis 4:10] -- And He said to him: What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. The blood has a great voice, not only of Abel, but of all those slain for the Lord: for the voice of their blood is the very steadfastness of their faith, the very fervor of their charity, through which they merited to suffer for the Lord. It cries out to the Lord from the earth: for even if they have been slain by the impious in the hidden recesses of the earth as Abel was, nevertheless the very cause of their death is precious and clear in the sight of the internal Judge, justly demanding that those who were unjustly slain in their simplicity be crowned; and those who unjustly persecuted and slaughtered them be condemned. Therefore, the blood of the slain cries out to the Lord, and it is proven that their life before death cried out to Him as well, for they used to say: "I cried out with all my heart, hear me, O Lord; I will seek your justifications" (Psalm 118:145). For he indeed cries out to the Lord in his heart, who asks for great things, who prays for heavenly things, who hopes for the eternal, who seeks from Him not the glory of this world, but the keeping of His justifications. The Apostle teaches where this cry is born in the hearts of the just, saying: "God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father'" (Galatians 4:6); he says that the Spirit cries out in our hearts to the Father, because surely He Himself kindles this yearning to cry out. John reveals that the souls of martyrs possess this cry of pious devotion even after death when he says: "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained. They called out in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (Revelation 6:9-10). The souls of the saints cry out not out of hatred for their enemies, but out of love for justice, which they always learned to hunger and thirst for, as well as the desire to reclaim their body, so that the flesh they gave to death for the Lord might merit to stand before Him immortal and incorruptible. Great indeed is the voice of their cry, great is their desire for justice. As the blood of the saints cries out to the Lord, seeking just retribution for their unjust death, what befalls their persecutors is subsequently revealed, with the Lord saying to Cain:
[Genesis 4:11] -- Now therefore you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand: when you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. According to the measure of sinners, the just judge also sets the measure of retribution: for Adam, who ate the forbidden fruit, is by no means himself cursed, but rather the earth is subjected to a curse in his work; not so much that it denies the fruits to the worker, but that it yields its fruits to the cultivator with labor and sweat; and so that the same labor could eventually be finished, and eternal rest entered. He is also subjected to the death of the flesh: which is done by a favor of benevolence, so that he would not always labor and suffer, as only those who cannot grasp how burdensome the life of this present age is would doubt. But Cain, though knowing the transgression of his parents and their condemnation, added to the same transgression a heavier guilt of perfidy, malice, murder, and lying, which he had inherited; hence he is also justly punished with a harsher penalty: first, that he himself should be cursed beyond the earth, which he had polluted with his brother's blood, previously clean; then, that he should sweat uselessly in working the earth, with no abundance of fruits responding to his labors: thirdly, that he should always be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, not daring to have settled abodes anywhere, or, as another translation has it, live trembling and lamenting on the earth. But he, having heard the penalty of his great curse, did not wish to ask for forgiveness, but doubling sins upon sins, thought his crime so great that it could not be forgiven by God. Finally, he responded to the Lord:
[Genesis 4:13-14] -- My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon. Behold, you cast me out today from your presence, and I shall be hidden from your face and from the face of the earth, and I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth. I am cast out, he says, from your sight, and the consciousness of my crime not enduring the very light itself, I shall be hidden to lie in concealment. Or certainly you cast me out from the face of the earth, namely that in any region of the lands, among any inhabitants of this world, I may not be allowed to remain safe and free, and also hidden from your face, that I may no longer deserve to see it, which until today, by often beholding and hearing your voice, I lived more happily.
[Genesis 4:14] -- Therefore, everyone who finds me will kill me. Since from the trembling of the body and the fury of the trembling one, or from the instability of the wanderer and fugitive, he understands him to be one who deserves to be killed. But God, not wanting to end his torments quickly with death, nor delivering him to the punishment to which he had condemned himself:
[Genesis 4:15] -- By no means, he said, shall it be so, but whoever kills Cain shall be avenged sevenfold. You shall not die as you think, and you shall not receive death as a remedy, but you shall live for a long time as an example to others, so that they may not dare to sin in the same way; and it is so far from my wish that you be killed by anyone, that if anyone kills you, he shall be punished sevenfold, that is, with the gravest vengeance, for he will not have refrained from shedding blood despite being warned by the severity of your condemnation. For man should not have killed the man to whom God had given life despite his sin, either for the accumulation of his punishment or for the exemplar of caution and correction of others. For often Scripture signifies fullness by the number seven, as in Leviticus: If you walk contrary to me, and will not listen to me, I will add seven times more plagues upon you (Lev. 26:21). And a little later: And I will strike you seven times for your sins (Lev. 26:24), meaning manifoldly. And in a favorable sense the Psalmist says: Seven times a day I praise you (Ps. 118:164), which is to say in other words: His praise shall constantly be in my mouth (Ps. 34:1). As the ancient interpreters have said: Whoever kills Cain shall pay sevenfold vengeance, this holds the meaning: You shall live up to the seventh generation, and be tormented by the fire of your conscience; so that whoever kills you, according to double understanding, either in the seventh generation or to free you from great torment: not that he who kills Cain should be subjected to sevenfold vengeance, but that he should pay the sevenfold vengeance which have extended through the whole time of Cain, by killing him who was left alive for punishment. For the seventh from Adam was Lamech, who is said to have killed Cain: and this same Lamech fulfilled the sevenfold vengeance which Cain, having sinned sevenfold, deserved, by his death. For his first sin was that, offering to God, he did not divide rightly; the second, that he envied his brother; the third, that he acted deceitfully, saying: Let us go out to the field; the fourth, that he killed him; the fifth, that he brazenly denied: I do not know; the sixth, that he condemned himself, saying: My iniquity is greater than that I can deserve pardon; the seventh, that he did not repent even after being condemned.
[Genesis 4:15] -- And God set a sign upon Cain, lest anyone who found him would kill him. The very sign by which it was evident that he would always live as a trembling, groaning, wandering, and fugitive; reminded by his own misery, because he could not be killed by just anyone; but whoever would kill him would either deliver Cain himself from great miseries or, by doing this, would subject himself to a sevenfold vengeance.
[Genesis 4:16] -- And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, that is, from the inner parts of those dwellings in which he had been living with his parents until then, and was often accustomed to see Him in angelic form.
[Genesis 4:16] -- He dwelled in the land as a fugitive to the east of Eden. Eden is interpreted as pleasure or delight, by which name paradise is designated, about which it is said above: "And the Lord God planted a garden of pleasure from the beginning," which ancient interpreters have thus translated: "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east," from which it is understood that paradise is established to the eastern region of the world. Therefore, Cain dwelled not to the eastern region of paradise, otherwise he would dwell beyond this world, but in the eastern parts of the world, where paradise is nearby, although inaccessible and unknown to mortals. All things that are said literally about the justice or martyrdom of Abel, and about the depravity and condemnation of Cain, mystically testify to the passion of the Lord, the incarnation and persecution, and the destruction of the Jews. For the Lord says to those same Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well; for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). Thus Cain was the firstborn, Abel the second. The people of the Jews were God's first possession, as He Himself said to Moses, "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22); the second is the people of the gentiles, for whom especially the Son of God deemed it worthy to be born in the flesh and to die. Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and the Lord said: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:14). But Cain was a farmer, because the people of the Jews were involved in earthly and temporal affairs, either pursuing these alone or serving the Lord with these in mind, as they carnally understood those things which the prophets spoke mystically about the heavenly promise, saying: "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19).
[Genesis 4:3] -- For Cain offered gifts to the Lord from the fruits of the earth. For that people believed they pleased the Lord through good works, which they pursued for the sake of earthly reward. Or certainly, they offered gifts from the fruits of the earth when that people believed themselves to be justified through earthly circumcision, earthly Sabbath, earthly unleavened bread, and earthly Passover, despising the righteousness of faith which is in Christ.
[Genesis 4:4] -- Abel also offered from the firstborn of his flock and their fat. For the Lord, interceding with the Father on behalf of the saints, offers their vows to Him according to the form of the assumed humanity, that is, good works and the fat of inner love. For these are indeed the firstborn of his flock and their fat. The Lord looks upon Abel, saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Matt. XVII, 5). He looks also upon his gifts, because the life of the elect which he offers to Him gratefully, God the Father accepts, and as if by fire from heaven He ignites his sacrifice, because He inflames with the power of His spirit those who have taken care to mortify themselves for the Lord, so that they may more abundantly burn in the heavenly regions, indeed so that they may become wholly heavenly. But to Cain and his gifts, He does not look, because rebuking the carnal works of the Jews, He says through the prophet: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of goats (Isa. I, 11). And a little later: Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, be clean, that is, through faith in the grace of Christ. Cain is enraged against his brother's piety, nor does he, rebuked by the Lord, repent from his fury conceived out of envy. How much the Jews raged against the Lord and the grace of the New Testament out of jealousy, how many times they persisted malignantly in their undertakings when corrected or admonished by Him, is sufficiently revealed by the Gospel history. They fittingly correspond to what is said of Cain, for their countenance fell: for they could not gaze upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. For they had lost that joy of divine grace, of which the righteous, glorying, say: The light of your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord; You have put gladness in my heart (Ps. IV, 7).
[Genesis 4:8] -- Cain led his brother out into the field and killed him. The Jewish people led the Lord out of their city Jerusalem and crucified Him at Calvary; from both instances of this ordeal we are reminded typically to go out to the Lord outside the camp, bearing His reproach, that is, leaving behind the fellowship of the world and the company of the wicked, we should willingly endure all worldly contempt for the love of our heavenly homeland. When the Lord asked Cain where his brother Abel was, he replied that he did not know, and that it was not his duty to be his brother's keeper. Even to this day, when the faithful, the members of Christ, inquire of the Jews about Christ, they say they do not know. They would themselves have been keepers of Christ if they had been willing to receive and uphold the Christian faith. For whoever keeps Christ in their heart does not say, like Cain, that they do not know their brother, or that they are not their brother's keeper.
[Genesis 4:10] -- God said to Cain: What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. In the same way, the divine voice in the holy Scriptures reproaches the Jews. For Christ's blood speaks with a great voice on the earth, when all the nations respond Amen upon receiving it. This is the clear voice of the blood which the blood itself expresses from the mouths of the faithful redeemed by the same blood of which the Apostle rightly says to the faithful: You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). For the blood of Christ certainly speaks better than that of Abel, since the latter cried to the Lord in condemnation of the fratricide, but the former raises its voice to heaven for the salvation of Christ's faithful brethren.
[Genesis 4:11] -- Now therefore you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. He refers to the earth as the Church, for no other earth but she opens her mouth to taste in the mystery the blood of Christ that was shed by the hands of the Jewish people. Over this Church, the same people are accursed: for as much as she more closely adheres to the love of her Creator, so much more gravely does she understand the nation opposed to Him to be cursed, even if they, still in their pride, boast themselves as specially blessed.
[Genesis 4:12] -- When you have worked it, it will not give you its fruits. The same people worked that land which the head of the Church Christ bore, that is, in his flesh our salvation, by crucifying him who died for our sins, and that land did not give him its fruits, because he was not justified by faith in his resurrection who rose for our justification: hence, neither did the resurrected one appear to those by whom he was crucified, like Cain working the land, to sow that grain, not showing the same land the fruit of its virtue. But the Jews worked the land which is the Church, acting through their persecutions so that it might more greatly progress in God: often also raging against many unto death, but they themselves did not merit to see the fruit of the faith and precious death of those. But what Cain answered to the Lord was, “My iniquity is greater than to deserve forgiveness. Behold you cast me today from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth:” it is evident more clearly than light about the Jewish people, because the iniquity by which they killed the Son of God is greater than to deserve forgiveness; and hence whoever of them receive forgiveness repenting, these truly beyond their merit are saved by the divine grace of piety. It is evident that he was cast out from the face of the earth, that is, from the lot of the holy Church, and hidden from the face of divine contemplation; what he himself extended, when he veiled the face of Christ in the passion, which also the heavenly signs extended to them, when, he being crucified, the sun hid its rays of light, and with the kingdom lost, a fugitive and wanderer he was dispersed through the world, fearing lest he be deprived of even temporal life, and as if saying with Cain: “Everyone who finds me will kill me.” But what did God answer to him? “It shall not be so,” but “whoever kills Cain will pay sevenfold vengeance,” that is, the impious race of carnal Jews will not perish by bodily death. For whoever will thus destroy them will pay sevenfold vengeance, that is, will remove from them the sevenfold vengeance with which they were bound for the guilt of the slain Christ, so that in this whole time, which is turned by the sevenfold number of days, the more because the Jewish nation did not perish, it may appear clearly enough to faithful Christians what subjection they deserved, who with proud rule killed the Lord. We placed the exposition of this sentence here according to the old translation because we have excerpted from the works of St. Augustine who followed this, as also many other things.
[Genesis 4:15] -- And God set a mark upon Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. The Jewish people, whether under pagan or Christian rulers, have the mark of their law, by which they are distinguished from other nations and peoples, and every emperor or king who finds them in his kingdom finds them with that mark, nor does he kill them, that is, he does not make them cease to be Jews, being distinguished by a certain definite mark of their own observance from the communion of other nations, unless any of them have turned to Christ.
[Genesis 4:16] -- And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod to the east of Eden. By the presence of the Lord is usually understood the recognition by which He manifests and is known. Therefore, deservedly, the people who have withdrawn from the grace of divine recognition are said to dwell on earth. For they cannot say with the elect, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20). The Septuagint interpreters translated this passage thus: "Now Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God and dwelt in the land of Naid opposite Eden." Naid, however, is translated as "fugitive," or as we find in the book of Hebrew names, "unstable motion and fluctuation," which some, including Josephus, agree to be the place where Cain dwelt. Furthermore, our interpreter understood not the name of a place, but the significance of the thing itself; because Cain would be always unstable and fluctuating and of uncertain abodes. How much this matches the present state of the Jews, the whole world is a witness. They are also rightly said to dwell opposite Eden. For Eden signifies pleasure or delight: because indeed that faithless people, as much as they turn away from the knowledge of truth and entangle themselves in earthly affairs, so much they live a life contrary to heavenly delights; and because they only thirst for temporal joys, they are adversaries with the dry throats of their hearts to the torrent of divine pleasure by which the righteous are refreshed.
[Genesis 4:17] -- Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. He built a city, and he called its name after his son's name, Enoch. Just as from the beginning of the world, starting with the murder of Abel, the passions of the saints were present; so too in the malice and persecution of Cain, the betrayals of the reprobate are suggested, which will continue in the world until the end of the age; thus in the city that Cain built, it was symbolically intimated that the entire hope of the wicked is to be fixed on the kingdom and happiness of this world, as they have no faith or desire for future goods. The Lord speaks of this city through the prophet Hosea: "I am God, not human, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not enter into the city" (Hosea 11:9). For neither Abel nor Seth, who was born in his place, are read to have built a city or houses: for they clearly designated, or rather they were the first fruits of those who rejoice to sing to their Creator: "For I am a sojourner with you, a wanderer, as were all my fathers" (Psalm 39:12). This fits well with the promise of the Lord we mentioned earlier: "I am God and not human, the Holy One in your midst": because to the extent that they render themselves foreigners from the association of the worldly city, they are therefore more worthy of the dwelling of their Creator. Cain aptly called the city by the name of his son Enoch, to designate that he would have successors who, being excluded from the heavenly fatherland, would fix their hearts on the delight of this life. And well indeed is Enoch interpreted as Dedication, because the reprobates, while they desire to rejoice for what they work in the present, as if dedicating the city which they build for themselves in the first generation. Conversely, in the lineage of the human race which descended through Seth to Noah, the seventh from Adam is born as Enoch, who is read to have walked before God and was not found because God took him: for indeed the rest and joy and the entire hope of the elect is in the future Sabbath, who, after walking with the Lord in this life, humbly following His commandments, are taken by Him into the life of eternal rest and no longer appear among mortals, because they live with Him immortally. They are indeed His city and temple, now daily striving towards perfection through good works, and then, their labors completed, reigning with Him, and in their own dedication, which will perpetually be celebrated through the presence of the Holy Spirit, each rejoices as if in the name of Enoch.
[Genesis 4:18] -- Moreover, Enoch begot Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech, who took two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah, and Adah bore Jabal. The progeny of Cain is counted up to the seventh generation, and in this generation, he himself was killed by Lamech, being freed from the sevenfold punishments which he had long borne. In this entire offspring that was born from him, having been also polluted by the adultery of Lamech adding to the curse, perished with the coming flood. Defiled indeed by adultery in the sixth generation, but destroyed by the flood in the seventh generation, in which it is spiritually conveyed that the city of the impious, that is, the entire society of the reprobate, will corrupt itself with crimes in the six ages of this world, but in the seventh, which is in the future, it will perish eternally. For just as Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was taken up into paradise and man did not see him, because he lives in peace with God, so the seventh from Cain, Jabal, is interpreted as “Change,” and he was destroyed by the flood with his brothers and all his progeny, and man did not see him, because he was punished with eternal death, and from the glory of the world which he loved, he was changed into the punishment which he did not foresee. In these, it is clearly indicated, as we have said, that the holy tend towards rest in another life after the six ages of this world, and the reprobate towards punishment, as also the history narrated by the Lord about the poor Lazarus and the proud rich man clearly proves.
[Genesis 4:20] -- He begot, he says, Ada Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and shepherds, and the name of his brother was Jubal. He was the father of those who play the harp and organ. Sella also begot Tubal-Cain, who was a forger in every kind of bronze and iron work. All these things which are said to have been found or made by the sons of Lamech relate to the cultivation, adornment, or enticements of this life: but none such are read of Abel, nor of Seth who was born in his place, nor of his grandchildren, but they are proved to have led a simple life on earth like strangers. For even if Abel was a shepherd of sheep, he did not so devote himself to this service as to build himself tents in which he could engage more comfortably in it. As for the harp and organ, it is far from likely that so great a man would have given any time to them. Indeed, anyone who diligently observes all the works made of bronze and iron will clearly recognize that if the human race had kept the natural law rightly, even after being expelled from the joys of paradise by the fault of transgression, it would by no means need all these things: whence it is evident that all these were invented by the sons of the curse, although later, as the human race degenerated from the purity of its first way of life, even good servants of God sometimes engaged in such things for the sake of social living. But with a great distinction, of course, because the wicked delighted in such things as their highest good: whereas the chosen either utterly renounce them or use them for some convenience of this life, until they reach the eternal, as a traveler uses a lodging or provisions while passing through. In short, the patriarchs lived in tents, but like strangers on earth, to distinguish them from those who lived in cities and houses as citizens of the earth. The psalmists used the harp and organ, but to praise the Lord with them: and on the contrary, the prophet reproves those who resounded with the harp, tambourine, and lyre in banquets. There were learned men among the people of God in all works of bronze and iron, as well as silver and gold: but God himself commanded them to transfer this art to the distinction of his tabernacle. The prophet also, proclaiming the joys of the Lord's incarnation, predicted that harmful works of iron would be removed and changed for the better, saying, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isa. II, 4). Nor should it be passed over negligently that when men began to be defiled by adultery, to devote more than right to the tending of flocks, to be dissolved by musical modes, to engage in forging arts, then they were destroyed by the overhanging flood. But we must guard more diligently lest the last day find us ensnared by such things beyond measure, for the Lord, speaking of the day of judgment, mentioned this time to incite us to the study of caution, saying: For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away; so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt. XXIV, 38).
[Genesis 4:22] -- The sister of Tubalcain is Noema. Noema is interpreted as Pleasure. Well, the lineage of Cain fittingly ends with the birth of a woman; and the same woman is named Pleasure: because the entire intention of the wicked in the world serves allurements, and they desire to end their life in the fulfillment of carnal pleasures. Indeed, after this woman was born, not long after, the entire cursed progeny was finished by the flood: because when they submit the neck of their mind to the delights of the world, when they say peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them. It should be noted, however, that delight or pleasure can be understood in two ways, that is, in both good and evil: in good, namely, when it is said, "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (Psalm 37:11). And again: "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures" (Psalm 36:8). From which pleasure paradise is also named, because surely man was placed in it to enjoy perpetually the most blessed and holy delights of the flesh and soul in the presence of his Maker. But pleasure is understood in an evil sense when certain lovers of pleasures more than of God are noted by the Apostle. The name Noema is fittingly applied to them, in whose generation at first the world's age, except for a few, was destroyed. Therefore, the human race had departed from Eden, that is, from the delights of internal goods; and, having abandoned heavenly things, was cultivating the earth, and had come to the birth of a woman, who would be named Noema, that is, Pleasure: and not long after, everything perished in the cataclysm: so that indeed it might be indicated, both by the birth of such offspring and by the outcome of the ensuing disaster, that those who neglect spiritual things and subjugate themselves to the pleasures of the flesh rightly hasten toward destruction. And indeed Noema was born in the seventh generation from Cain. But if you wish to count the generations from Adam and also number all the sons of Lamech, you will find Noema in the eleventh place. For Lamech is the seventh from Adam, and when you add his four children, you indeed fulfill the number eleven. The number eleven, which exceeds ten, is often used to designate sin, which is committed by the transgression of the decalogue. And therefore, rightly, the reprobate generation is terminated and perishes in the eleventh number, and that in a woman: because while despising the precepts of the divine law, striving to be satiated by depraved pleasures, they build sudden destruction for themselves.
[Genesis 4:23-24] -- And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Zillah: "Hear my voice, you wives of Lamech; give ear to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me." The man or young man that he mentions signifies Cain, whom the same Lamech unintentionally killed, as Jerome testifies to be written in a certain Hebrew volume. He killed him both in his wound and in his bruise, because he brought death and damnation upon himself for killing him whom God had granted life.
[Genesis 4:24] -- Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for Cain, but for Lamech seventy-sevenfold. Sevenfold vengeance was taken for Cain, as he bore the penalties of fratricide and envy as a wandering fugitive up to the seventh generation. But for Lamech seventy-sevenfold, because, as Jerome testifies, reported to him by the Hebrews, and Josephus confirms the same, seventy-seven souls were generated from the lineage of Cain, which perished in the flood. They say that in this number the vengeance upon Lamech was accomplished, as his lineage persisted until the flood. Lamech is interpreted as "Smiting" or "Smitten," both interpretations fitting the same man who struck Cain and for this same parricide he was struck by divine vengeance. Mystically, however, Lamech signifies mankind, both smitten by the deceit of the ancient enemy in the first parent, and smiting itself by the accumulation of daily sins, for which vengeance was given seventy-sevenfold; because until the advent of Christ, who appeared in the world in the seventy-seventh generation, the guilt of the first transgression pressed upon mankind, until He came to take away the sins of the world, and by the door of the kingdom of heaven, opened by his baptism or passion, lead us into eternal life which we lost in Adam. Then, therefore, vengeance upon Lamech ceased because, with the sting of death and sin broken by the Lord's passion and resurrection, mankind returned to the heavenly kingdom.
[Genesis 4:25] -- And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel. After he mentioned the fratricide Cain being extinguished, and repeated that his progeny was cursed in the seventh generation, he returns to explain the restoration of the holy seed, and that this remained perpetually despite the perishing of the impious. Now Seth is interpreted as "appointed" or "resurrection," the reason for the name being revealed by the parent saying:
[Genesis 4:25] -- The Lord has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. He was appointed in place of Abel, not only in the order of birth but also in the merit of virtue, filling the place of his brother, whose devotion of mind is shown to have also passed to his offspring, as it is added:
[Genesis 4:26] -- But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enos. He began to invoke the name of the Lord. Enos is interpreted as Man or Vir: whence it is proper that he who has such a name begins to invoke the name of the Lord, imploring the help of the Creator all the more earnestly in his daily prayers, the more he remembers that he is made of frail nature. Mystically, however, just as Abel slain by Cain denotes the suffering Lord; so Seth born for him designates him risen from the dead: hence, aptly among the Septuagint Translators, it is reported that his father or mother said at his birth: For God has raised up for me another seed for Abel, whom Cain killed. For this reason it is rightly called another seed according to the mystical senses, since the same Lord who was slain has risen again, because indeed he was slain mortal, he rose immortal: he died so that we might not fear death: he rose to give us hope and faith in rising again from death: whose separation of seeds, speaking of our resurrection, the Apostle has plainly distinguished, saying, It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor, it rises in glory: it is sown in weakness, it rises in power: it is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body (I Cor. XV, 42). And concerning the Lord himself, Although he died, he says, of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God (II Cor. XIII, 4). Enos truly, the son of Seth, figuratively expresses the Christian people, who through faith and the sacrament of the Lord’s passion and resurrection are daily born from water and the Holy Spirit throughout the whole world. For preferring the grace of his regeneration to his first generation, he is accustomed to invoke the help of the name of the Lord in all that he does, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name (Matt. VI, 9), etc., in that same Lord’s prayer, or in others with which we are accustomed to implore his grace, without which we are worth nothing; whence also we are rightly called by the name Enos, that is, Man, on account of the consciousness of our frailty: on account of the hope of our future immortality, we are the sons of Seth, that is, of the Resurrection.