Genesis 4 - Introduction - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

A.M. 2. B.C. 4003.

In this chapter we have both the world and the church in Adam's family, and a specimen of the character and state of both in all ages; the children of God and the children of the wicked one, being represented in Cain and Abel: and we have an early instance of the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

(1,) The birth, names, and callings of Cain and Abel are here recorded, 1, 2.

(2,) Their religion, and different success in it, 3, 4.

(3,) Cain's anger at God, and the reproof of him for that anger, 5, 6, 7.

(4,) Cain's murder of his brother, and the process against him for that murder, 8-16.

(5,) The family and posterity of Cain, 17-24.

(6,) The birth of another son and grandson of Adam, 25, 26.