the thoughts, and its poetic diction, the germ of the later poetry, we may detect “that Titanic arrogance, of which the Bible says that its power is its god (Hab 1:11), and that it carries its god, viz., its sword, in its hand (Job 12:6)” ( Delitzsch). - According to these accounts, the principal arts and manufactures were invented by the Cainites, and carried out in an ungodly spirit; but they are not therefore to be attributed to the curse which rested upon the family. They have their roots rather in the mental powers with which man was endowed for the sovereignty and subjugation of the earth, but which, like all the other powers and tendencies of his nature, were pervaded by sin, and desecrated in its service. Hence these inventions have become the common property of humanity, because they not only may promote its intended development, but are to be applied and consecrated to this purpose for the glory of God.
verses 25-26
The character of the ungodly family of Cainites was now fully developed in Lamech and his children. The history, therefore, turns from them, to indicate briefly the origin of the godly race. After Abel's death a third son was born to Adam, to whom his mother gave the name of Seth (שׁת, from שׁית, a present participle, the appointed one, the compensation); “ for,” she said, “ God hath appointed me another seed (descendant) for Abel, because Cain slew him.” The words “because Cain slew him” are not to be regarded as an explanatory supplement, but as the words of Eve; and כּי by virtue of the previous תּחת is to be understood in the sense of כּי תּחת. What Cain ( human wickedness) took from her, that has Elohim ( divine omnipotence) restored. Because of this antithesis she calls the giver Elohim instead of Jehovah, and not because her hopes had been sadly depressed by her painful experience in connection with the first-born.
Verse 26
“ To Seth, to him also (הוּא גּם, intensive, vid., Ges. §121, 3) there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh.” אנושׁ, from אנשׁ to be weak, faint, frail, designates man from his frail and mortal condition (Psa 8:4; Psa 90:3; Psa 103:15, etc.). In this name, therefore, the feeling and knowledge of human weakness and frailty were expressed (the opposite of the pride and arrogance displayed by the Canaanitish family); and this feeling led to God, to that invocation of the name of Jehovah which commenced under Enos. יהוה בּשׁם קרא, literally to call in (or by) the name of Jehovah, is
