성경 주석서

And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and [of such as have] cattle.

Adah bare Jabal. — Jabal, a good husband. Jubal, a merry Greek; whence the word iubilo in Latin, and our English jovial. Jabal, that dwelt in tents, and tended the herds, had Jubal to his brother, the father of hand and wind music. Jabal and Jubal, frugality and mirth, good husbandry and sweet content, dwell together. Virgil makes mention of a happy husbandman in his time, who

Nocte domum, dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis."

• Georg.

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And his brother’s name [was] Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

As handle the harp and organ. — He invented Musicam, mentis medicinam maestae . The word here rendered organ is in the Chaldee Paraphrast, a pipe . It imports loveliness and delight: for men do naturally love and delight in music. Ezekiel’s hearers seemed to be much taken with his pulpit music, Ezekiel 33:32 but proved at length like the Jassians in Strabo, who, delighted with the music of an excellent harper, ran all away as soon as the market bell rang, save only one deaf old man. These antediluvians likely were set all upon the merry mode, and not unlike the inhabitants of Tombutum in Africa, who are said to spend their whole time in piping and dancing.

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And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain [was] Naamah.

And Zillah bare Tubal-cain. — Perhaps the same that the poets call Vulcan. He was a cunning artificer in brass and iron. Tools they had before, and instruments of iron: how else could they have ploughed the accursed earth? But this man, artem iam inventam excoluit ornavitque , saith Junius; and is therefore called, a whetter or polisher of every artificer in brass and iron. They had the art of it before: but he added to their skill by his invention; he sharply and wittily taught smith’s craft; and is therefore by the heathens feigned to be the god of smiths, says another interpreter. Vide Natal. com. Mythol ., lib. ii., cap. 5.

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And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

And Lamech said unto his wives. — Who, it seems, were troublesome to him with their domestic discords, and led him a discontented life. He therefore gives them to understand in this set speech, what a man he is, if molested by them or any other, and what slaughters he can make, if provoked by an adversary. I would slay a man, if but wounded, … This revenge he counts manhood , which indeed is doghood rather. So Alexander Phereus consecrated his javelin, wherewith he slew his uncle Polyphron, as a monument of his manhood, and called it his god Tychon. Plutar in Pelopida . So Sulla caused it to be registered in the public records, Ne memoria tam praeclarae rei dilueretur . that he had proscribed, and put to death, four thousand and seven hundred Romans. So Stokesly, Bishop of London, comforted himself upon his deathbed with this, that in his time he had burned fifty heretics, as he called them. Act. and Mon . Is not this to "glory in their shame, and to have damnation for their end?" Philippians 3:19 Is it not the devil which sets men working to do thus, as he did Saul to seek David’s life, and Lamech to domineer in this sort over his wives, seeking so to repress their strife? A certain Indian coming into a house of the New English where a man and his wife were brawling, and they bidding him sit down, he was welcome: he answered, he would not stay there; "Hobomack," that is, the devil, was there; and so departed. New Engl. First Fruits , p. 4.

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If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, … — Boastful Lamech brags, and goes on to outdare God himself. For it is as if he should say, If God will take vengeance on them that condemn him, why may not I on those that condemn me, wives or other? Nay, though God will forgive evils against him, yet will not I evils against me. I’ll have the odds of him, seventy to seven; so Junius interprets it. A desperate expression, and somewhat like that of Pope Julius III., above mentioned, in the last note upon the former chapter; whereunto may here be added, Act. and Mon ., fol. 1417. that the same Pope being forbidden by his physician to eat swine’s flesh, as being harmful and bad for his gout, he called for his steward in a great rage, and said, Bring me my pork flesh, al despito di Dio , in despite of God. O wretch!

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And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, [said she], hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

She bare a son, and called, … — Sic uno avulso, non deficit alter Aureus . a Dead bones may revive, and out of the ashes of a phoenix another phoenix spring. Iana iacet phoenix nato phoenice ,& c. The two witnesses that were killed, received the Spirit of life from God again. Revelation 11:11 John Baptist reviveth in our Saviour ( qui huic succenturiatus est ), and Stephen in Paul; John Huss in Luther (the goose in the swan); and the suppressed Waldenses in the Protestants. The Papists gave out that when Luther died, all his sect would die with him: and when Queen Elizabeth’s head was laid, we should have strange work in England. A false Jesuit in a scandalous libel published it, Camdon’s Elis. that she wished that she might, after her death, hang a while in the air, to see what striving would be for her kingdom. But she both lived and died with glory; her rightful successor came in peaceably, not a dog moving his tongue at him; the true reformed religion was established, and is hitherto maintained among us, evil the malice of Rome and hell. It was the legacy left us by our ancestors: the blood of those blessed martyrs was the seed of our Church, of which I may say, as he of his city,

“ Victa tamen vinces, eversaque Troia resurges:

Obruit hostiles illa ruina domos. ”

When the devil and his imps had got Abel into his grave, and saw Adam without another in his place for a hundred and thirty years’ space, or near upon, what a deal of joy was there, think we, among them, and sending of gifts! But God in due time sets up a Seth, instead of Abel, and so cuts the devil’s comb, confutes his confidence. He will have a Church, when all’s done. The Pope c could tell the Turk so much in a message,

“ Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem:

Fluctuat, at nunquam mergitur illa ratis. ”

a Virgil. The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great tree with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off, with this posie, Uno avulso ,& c.

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This [is] the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

This is the book of the generations. — Sepher, ñôã a ciphering of their names, acts, and accidents; that we might know, first, who were Christ’s progenitors; secondly, by whom the Church was continued; thirdly, how long the old world lasted, viz., one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. Alsted, Chron ., p. 494. Whence some have grounded a conjecture, that the year of Christ one thousand six hundred and fifty-six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world. Others think the world will be then at an end, and they base this on this chronogram, MunDi ConfLagratIo .

In the likeness of God made he him. — This is much inculcated, that it may be much observed, and we much humbled, that have parted with so fair a patrimony; striving as much as may be to recover it in Christ, who being “the express image of his Father’s person,” απαυγασμα και χαρακτηρ . Hebrews 1:3 is both apt and able to renew that lost image of God in us, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue.

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Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Male and female created he them. — The Jews at this day have base conceits of women: as that they have not so divine a soul as men; that they are of a lower creation, made only for the propagation and pleasure of man, … Blunt’s Voyage , p. 122. And therefore they suffer them not to enter the synagogue, but appoint them a gallery without. Thus “they err, not knowing the Scriptures.” Matthew 22:29 See Trapp on " Genesis 2:22 "

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