Genesis 4

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:8

Genesis 4:8. Cain talked with Abel his brother Either familiarly or friendly, as he used to do, with a view to make him secure and careless, or by way of expostulation and contention. The Chaldee paraphrast adds, that Cain, when they were in discourse, maintained there was no judgment to come, and that when Abel spoke in defence of the truth, Cain took that occasion to fall upon him. The Scripture tells us the reason wherefore he slew him, “because his own works were evil, and his brother’s... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:9

Genesis 4:9. Where is Abel thy brother? Not that God was ignorant where he was, but he asks him that he might convince him of his crime, and bring him to a confession of it; for those that would be justified before God, must accuse themselves. And he said, I know not Thus in Cain, the devil was both a murderer and a liar from the beginning. Am I my brother’s keeper? Is he so young that he needs a guardian? Or didst thou assign any such office to me? Surely he is old enough to take... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:10

Genesis 4:10. What hast thou done? Thou thinkest to conceal it; but the evidence against thee is clear and incontestable: the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth from the ground He speaks as if the blood itself were both witness and prosecutor, because God’s own knowledge testified against him, and God’s own justice demanded satisfaction. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:11

Genesis 4:11. And now art thou cursed 1st, Separated to all evil, laid under the wrath of God, as it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. 2d, He is cursed from the earth. Thence the cry came up to God, thence the curse came up to Cain. God could have taken vengeance by an immediate stroke from heaven: but he chose to make the earth the avenger of blood; to continue him upon the earth, and not presently to cut him off; and yet to make even that... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:13-14

Genesis 4:13-14 . Cain said, My punishment (Hebrews my sin) is greater than I can bear Sin, however, seems to be put for punishment, as it is Genesis 4:7, and in many other places. For Cain was not so sensible of his sin, as of the miserable effects of it, as appears from the next verse, where, to justify his complaint, he descants upon the sentence, observing, 1st, That he was excluded by it from the favour of God: that, being cursed, he was hid from God’s face, which is indeed the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:15

Genesis 4:15. Whosoever slayeth Cain, &c. God having said, in Cain’s case, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, it had been a daring usurpation for any man to take the sword out of God’s hand. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain To distinguish him from the rest of mankind. What the mark was, God has not told us: therefore the conjectures of men are vain. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:16

Genesis 4:16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt on the east of Eden Somewhere distant from the place where Adam and his religions family resided: distinguishing himself and his accursed generation from the holy seed; in the land of Nod That is, of shaking or trembling, because of the continual restlessness of his spirit. Those that depart from God cannot find rest anywhere else. When Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, he never rested after. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:19

Genesis 4:19. Lamech took two wives It was one of the degenerate race of Cain who first transgressed the original law of marriage, that two only should be one flesh, and introduced a custom which still subsists in many parts of the world. Christ fully laid open the iniquity of this practice, and restored marriage to its first form, Matthew 19:8. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:20

Genesis 4:20. He (Jabal) was the father of such as dwell in tents That is, he taught shepherds to dwell in them, and to remove them from place to place for conveniency of pasture. The first authors of any thing are commonly called its fathers. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:21

Genesis 4:21. The harp and organ The word rendered organ here means a lovely instrument; but what kind of an instrument this was, the Jews themselves do not know. This Jubal was the inventor of such musical instruments, and of music itself. Genesis 4:23-24 . This passage is extremely obscure. We have no information whom he slew, or on what occasion, neither what ground he had to be so confident of the divine protection. The original words indeed may be rendered, Have I slain a man... read more

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:8

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:9

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:10

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:11

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:13-14

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:15

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:16

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:19

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:20

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 4:21

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