성경 주석서

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

A fugitive and a vagabond, … — The patriarchs were pilgrims, and stayed not long in a place. The apostles also were hurried about, Romans 15:19 and had "no certain dwellingplace." 2 Corinthians 4:11 But first, God numbered their wanderings. Psalms 56:8 He kept just reckoning of therein his count-book. Secondly, Their hearts were fixed, trusting in the Lord. Psalms 112:7 They could call their souls to rest, when they had no rest in their bones; and fly up to heaven with the wings of a dove, when hunted on earth as so many partridges. So could not Cain the prisoner. He was not more a fugitive in the earth, than in his own conscience; Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi. - Tertul. fain he would have fled from the terrors of it, but could not; he was prisoner to it, and must abide by it. Hence the Greek translates this text, Sighing and trembling shall you be on the earth; and so the word here used is applied elsewhere to the trembling of the heart, Isaiah 7:2 to the walking of the lips, 1 Samuel 1:13 to the shaking of the forest by a violent wind, Isaiah 7:2 to the leaping of the lintel at the presence of the Lord Isaiah 6:4-8 And this, in all probability, was that mark that God set upon him. Genesis 4:15 Not a horn in his forehead, as the Jews feign, but a hornet in his conscience, such as God vexed the Hivites with, Exodus 23:28 stinging them with unquestionable conviction and horror. For assuredly a body is not so tormented with stings, or torn with stripes, as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions. Cicer. Orat. pro Ros. Amer .

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And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear.

My punishment is greater than I can bear. — Or, mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. In either sense he sins exceedingly, and worse perhaps than in slaying his brother, whether he murmur against God’s justice, or despair of his mercy. Mine iniquity is greater, … Mentiris, Cain , saith a Father. Cain did not say so, because it was so; but it was so, because he said so. Despair is Satan’s masterpiece; it carries men headlong to hell, as the devils did the herd of swine into the deep; witness Guarlacus, Bomelius, Latomus of Lovain, Johannes de Canis, our English Hubertus, a covetous oppressor, who made this will, - I yield my goods to the king, my body to the grave, my soul to the devil. Pope Paul III., that spent his time in filthy pleasures, after that he had heard of the death of his son Petrus Aloisius, died in a peevish rage, and crying out in despair, Peccatum meum contra me semper, My sin is ever against me; and so gave up the ghost. Act. and Mon ., fol. 1908. Gellius in Dialog. Secundo Chimaerico . Willet on Daniel.

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Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me shall slay me.

From the face of the earth. — That is, of this earth, this country, my father’s family; which in the next words he calls God’s face, the place of his public worship, from the which Cain was here justly excommunicated. And surely St Jude’s woe will light heavily upon all such as, going in the way of Cain, and not willing to hear of their wicked ways, do wilfully absent themselves from the powerful preaching of the word. They that will not hear the word, shall hear the rod. Micah 6:9 Yea, a sword shall pierce through their souls, as it did Cain’s here; in whom was fulfilled that of Eliphaz; - "A dreadful sound was in his ears, lest in his prosperity the destroyer should come upon him. He believed not that he should return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword." Job 15:21-22

Every one that finds me shall slay me. — Quam male est extra legem viventibus! quicquid meruerunt semper expectant. Petron. Fat swine cry hideously, if but touched or meddled with, as knowing they owe their life to them that will take it. Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the senate, that he suffered death daily; whereupon Tacitus makes this good note, Tandem facinora et flagitia in supplicium vertuntur. As every body hath its shadow appertaining to it, so hath every sin its punishment. And although they escape the lash of the law, yet "vengeance will not suffer them to live," Acts 28:4 as the barbarians rashly censured St Paul, - to live quietly at least. Richard III., after the murder of his two innocent nephews, had fearful dreams and visions; insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword, which, always naked, stuck by his side, he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. Daniel’s Chron. continued by Trussel , 249. Polidor Virgil thus writes of his dream that night before Bosworth Field, where he was slain, that he thought that all the devils in hell pulled and hailed him in most hideous and ugly shapes; and concludes of it at last, "I do not think it was so much his dream, as his evil conscience that bred those terrors." It is as proper for sin to raise fears in the soul, as for rotten flesh and wood to breed worms. That worm that never dies is bred here in the froth of filthy lusts and flagitious courses, and lies gnawing and grubbing upon men’s inwards, many times in the ruffe of all their jollity. This makes Saul call for a minstrel, Belshazzar for his carousing cups, Cain for his workmen to build him a city, others for other of the devil’s drugs, to put on the pangs of their wounded spirits and throbbing consciences. Charles IX., after the massacre of France, could never endure to be awakened in the night without music, or some like diversion; he became as terrible to himself, as formerly he had been to others. Thuan. lib. lvii. But above all, I pity the loss of their souls, who serve themselves as the Jesuit in Lancashire, followed by one that found his glove, with a desire to restore it him. But pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, he leaps over a hedge, plunges into a deep pit behind it, unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned. M. Ward’s Sermon.

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And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

The Lord set a mark, … — Some say it was the letter Tau; others, some letter of Jehovah: probably it was the perpetual trembling of his hands, and whole body, the very sight whereof made people pity him, till at length he was slain, say some, by his nephew Lamech. Cedrenus Totum Cedreni opus est stabulum quisquiliarum , … - Scalig. tells us, if we may believe him, that Cain took his death by the fall of a house in the year of the world 931, the next year after the death of his father Adam. But however he died, sure it is, he had but an ill life of it. He was marked, says Philo, Ne semel morte defungeretur, sed ut aetatem totam moriendo exigeret . - Philo . but to his misery; he might not be killed by any, that he might everyday is dying, having a hell in his conscience, and standing in fear of every man he met with. He that would not hearken to God, so sweetly inciting and enticing him to do well, ( Genesis 4:7 has now Pavor and Pallor for his gods, as Lanctantius Lanctan. Instit. reports of Tullius Hostilius, who had profanely derided the devotions of his predecessor Numa, as here Cain had done his brother Abel’s.

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And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

And Cain went out from the presence, … — But whither could he go from God’s Spirit? or whither could he fly from his presence? Ubi est Deus? quid dixi miser? sed ubi non est? - Bern . Psalms 139:7 From the presence of his power he could not: for,

God is "not very far from any one of us," saith St Paul. Acts 17:27 Not so far surely as the bark is from the tree, "for all things consist in him"; Colossians 1:17 so that a wicked man cannot wag hand or foot without his privity. But it was the presence of his grace, and use of his ordinances that this wretch fled from; as did likewise Jonah, Jonah 1:3 in that, as wise as he, so going out of the grace of God into the warm sun, as we say. God fetched Jonah home again by weeping-cross, and made him feelingly acknowledge, for it had like to cost him a choking, that "they that observe lying vanities," as he had done, "forsake their own mercies." Jonah 2:8 But Cain seated himself in the land of Nod, and there fell to building and planting, in contempt, as it is thought, of the divine doom denounced against him; or rather to drown the noise of his conscience, as the old Italians were wont to do the noise of the heavens in time of thunder, by ringing their greatest bells, and letting off their greatest ordinance. Sigon.

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And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

And he builded a city. — So, many drown themselves either in secular businesses, or sensual pleasures, and all to put by their melancholy dumps, and heart-qualms, as they call them; indeed to muffle up the mouths of their horribly guilty consciences. So Nicephorus Phocas, when, Zimri-like, he had killed his master, he laboured, like Cain, to secure himself with building high walls. After which, he heard a voice telling him, that though he built his walls never so high, yet sin within the walls would undermine all. εαν υψοις τα τειχη εως ουρανου, ενδσν τς κακον ευαλωτος η πολις . - Cedren . Besides that, one small drop of an evil conscience troubles a whole sea of outward comforts and contentments: a confluence whereof would no more ease conscience, than a silken stocking would do a broken leg. Silly are they that think to glide away their groans with games, and their cares with cards, …

Called the city after the name of his son Enoch. — That he might be styled, Lord Enoch of Enoch! This is the ambition of worldly men; their names are not written in heaven; they will propagate them therefore upon earth, as Nimrod by his tower, Absalom by his pillar, Cain by his city Enoch (which St Augustine fitly maketh a figure of Rome, because both of them were built by a parricide). "Their inward thought is," saith the psalmist, "that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations"; and therefore, "they call their lands after their own names." Psalms 49:11 They seek to immortalise themselves upon their possessions; but the third heir seldom ever owns them. De male quaesito vix gaudet tertius haeres . - Lucan . Hence, houses and lands change masters so oft ( Olim eram Menippi, nunc Spensippi, …, said that house in the Apologue). God justly crosses these "inhabitants of the earth," Revelation 12:12 as they are called, in opposition to the saints, whose "conversation is in heaven," Philippians 3:20 whereof they are fellow citizens. These know that they have here no abiding city, they look for one therefore above, not Henochia, but Heaven, "whose builder and maker is God." Hebrews 11:10

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And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

And unto Enoch was born Irad, … — Cain had a numerous offspring. Seven generations of his are here reckoned. Seth is not yet born, that we hear of. The wicked "are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." Psalms 17:14 "They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance." They dance to "the timbrel and harp," (as here Jabal and Jubal did,) but they suddenly turn into hell, and so their merry dance ends in a miserable downfall. Job 21:11-13

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And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Lamech took unto himself. — As his own lust led him, not caring for consent of parents. And two wives, Lamech polygamus unam costam in duas divisit . - Hier . as little caring for the command of God, that "two," and no more, "should be one flesh," Genesis 2:24 yea, though he "had the residue of the spirit," and so could have made many wives for Adam, yet "made he but one," saith the prophet Heroum filii noxae . Malachi 2:15 And wherefore one? but that he might seek a godly seed. Solomon’s polygamy was punished with barrenness. We read not of any son he had but one, and he none of the wisest neither, Rehoboam. This great king had but one son by many housefuls of wives, when many a poor man hath a house full of children by one wife. Erasmus tells a story of a poor English cripple, lame on both legs, that married a blind woman, and gave this reason, We shall the better agree, when neither can hit other in the teeth with our several defects and deformities. Nec fefellit hominem iudicium , saith he; it proved a happy match. They lived lovingly and cheerfully together, and God Almighty blessed them with a dozen lusty boys, that had not the least deformity about them. Procreatis ex isto coniugio duodecim fratribus, nulloque naevo deformatis . - Dei Instit. Matr. Sardus tells us, that the old Britons would ten or twelve of them take one woman to wife. Deni duodenique unam uxorem ducebant .- De Morib. Gent ., lib. i., cap. 1. Likely women were scarce among them. But yet that was better than the old Scots, of whom St Hierome reports, that they took no wives; but satisfied their lusts up and down as they wished, and wheresoever they liked, after the manner of brute creatures. Ut cuique libitum fuerit, pecudum more lasciviunt. - Twini, Comment. de reb. Britan. ex Hieron . I have somewhere read, that not many hundreds of years since, they had a custom kept up among them, that the landlord might demand the first night of his tenant’s wife, as a chief rent. And Mr Fox relates, Act. and Mon ., fol. 791. that the friars in Germany were grown to that height of impudence, as to require the tenth night of every man’s wife, as a tithe due to them. Which to prevent, the Helvetians, when they received any new priest into their churches, they bargained with him before, to take his concubine, lest he should attempt any misuse of their wives and daughters. How much better were it, for the "avoiding of fornication, if every man of them had his own wife," saith Paul. 1 Corinthians 7:2 Not so, not so, saith Cardinal Campeius; Ibid. 790. for if comparison should be made, much greater offence it is, a priest to have a wife, than to have and keep at home many harlots; for they that keep harlots, saith he, as it is naught that they do, so do they acknowledge their sin; the other persuade themselves they do well, and so continue without repentance, or conscience of their fact. A fit reason for a carnal cardinal. Such another was his brother, Cardinalis Cremonensis, who after his stout replying in the Council of London, against the married estate of priests, exclaiming what a shameful thing it was to rise from the sides of a whore, to make Christ’s body, the night following was shamefully taken with a notable whore. Ibid. 1065. This was bad enough, but that was worse in Johannes from Casa, Dean of the Pope’s chamber, who so far forgot humanity and honesty, that he set forth a book in Italian metre, in commendation of Sodomitry, saying that he never used any other. Act and Mon ., 1417. This might better have become a Turk, than a bishop. Sodomy in the Levant is not held a vice, so debauched they are grown. Blunt’s Voyage , p. 79. The Turkish bashaws, besides their wives, whereof they have ten at least, each bashaw has as many, or likely more calamites, which are their serious loves. For their wives are used but to dress their meat, to laundress, and for reputation. Blunt, 14. Only when the great Turk gives his daughter or sister to any bashaw to wife, it is somewhat otherwise. For he gives her at the same time a dagger, saying, I give you to this man to be your slave and bedfellow. If he is not loving, obedient, and dutiful to thee, I give you here this cunzhare or dagger to cut off his head. Heyl., Geog ., p. 583. Yet can she not forbid him to marry more wives "to vex her," Leviticus 18:18 and fret her, as Peninnah did Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:6 yea, to make her to thunder, as the word here signifies: for Turks may take as many wives as they are able to maintain. Hence it is that in jealousy they exceed Italians, making their women go muffled all but their eyes; and not suffering them to go to church, or so much as look out of their own windows. Blunt, 106.

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