Notes, Critical and Explanatory, on the Holy Scriptures

The lifting up of the countenance, or joy, is pointed to in the text V. understands it of being re- warded : " Reel pies." Sept. If thou offer rightly, and divide not rightly, thou sinnest" This supposes that Cain withheld a portion of the offering. The text is the cross of critics. Chal. "If thou do thy works wetl, will it not be pardoned? and if thou do not, is not thy sin reserved to the day of judgment, when vengeance will be taken if thou be not converted; but if thou be converted, pardon will be granted." Syr. "Behold, if thou do well, thou wilt receive recompense; but unless thou do well, siu lleth at thy gate: thou wilt turn towards it, and it shall rule over thee." Ar. paraphrases: "If thou do well, wilt thou not be rewarded ? but if thou do not well, sin is lying in wait whithersoever thou goest, but its control belongeth to thee, and tbou shalt rule over it by free choice."

This is an eloquent expression of the appeal, wbioh is implicitly made to Divine justice. The blood that sinks into tho earth speaks In tones that reach the highest heavens.

Wbat this sign was is unknown. Some think that God vouchsafed to Cain a token of His protection. 9i Cain went from the place where God had manifested Himself: "from the face of God."

Cain, although not altogether stationary, built a city, which he called by the name of his son. Strabo

: 192, and Pliny 6 : 10, 12, make mention of a Caucasian people so called. Cain may have had many sons and daughters, with a large number of their descendants, when he undertook to build. The Scripture records the birth only of the more conspicuous. It is by no means certain that Henoch was his first son, or that the building of the city was undertaken soon after his birth. There Is a remarkable resemblance of names between several of the descendants of Seth and of Cain: — Cain: Henoch, Irad, Maviael, Mathusael, Lamech. Seth: Enos, Cainan, Malaleel, Jared, Henoch, Mathusala, Lamech.

The singular is put for the plural in the text. Up to the time of Jabel, tents were not used by the ahepherds.

This form of address partakes of poetry. M It is rendered interrogatively in ArM as if Lamecb undertook to dissipate the fears of his wives by asking them : was his offence In the double marriage as great as if he had slain a man ? Onkelos inserts a negation. Ar. implies it. Sam., Syr., Sept , support V., according to which, Laraect) informs his wives of tho death of a young man, whom he had slain in self-defence, or accidentally. n II., Sept., V., appear to state, that the death was the occasion of a wound to Lamech; but Sam., Syr., mean that by wounding he killed him.

From the vengeance denounced against any one who should kill Cain, although guilty of fratricide, Lamech infers that far greater punishment awaits the man who would take away his life, since his guilt was much less.

Lit. " For Cain slew him." The repeated use of the causal particle marks the simplicity of ancient style.

Favorable regard and acceptance are meant. 8t Jerome, after Theodotion, conjectures that God manifested His good pleasure by sending fire from on high. "God giving testimony to His gifts." Heb.