Genesis 4:1. And Adam knew his wife, &c.— All the speculations respecting this passage might have been spared, if the words had been rendered, Adam HAD known his wife Eve, a translation which the original perfectly well bears. Moses, it is evident, gives only the most concise account of things, regardless of smaller matters. He was to give a general history of the creation of the world, and of man; of the fall, and expulsion from Paradise; of the effects of that fall, and of the promised seed more especially, to which alone he seems peculiarly heedful, neglecting all the line of Adam, save that by which this seed was deduced from Seth, to Noah, Abraham, &c.
Bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord— The reason of the names in the Old Testament is generally given at the same time with the names themselves; as here Cain קין cain, is so called by his mother, because she had gotten, or acquired, קניתי caniti, a man; for Cain signifies gain or acquisition. There is something peculiar in the Hebrew here, I have gotten a man, אתאּיהוה eth-Jehovah, THE LORD. "Eve imagined," says Calmet, "that she had gotten the Saviour, son liberateur, her deliverer, the bruiser of the serpent's head, in her son Cain." Jonathan, the son of Uzziel, renders it, I have brought forth this man who is the angel of the Lord, that is, the Messiah, whom the Jews called by the name of the Angel, or Messenger, of the Lord. Malachi 3:1; Malachi 3:18. The reader must observe, upon this interpretation, how consistent the whole scheme of scripture is, and especially how the events properly connect in these Chapter s; as the promise of the seed; the name of Eve; the reason of the coats of skins; the placing of the Shechinah at the gate of Paradise; the triumph of Eve upon the birth of Cain; and, may we not add, the sacrifices and religious services of Cain and Abel, mentioned in the subsequent verses?—But for those who do not acquiesce in this interpretation, they must suppose eth את to be used for meeth מאת, and must consider it as a mere female exultation in Eve on the birth of her firstborn son.