Abel— This word signifies vanity. Calmet says, that Eve having observed in the conduct of Cain that he was not the deliverer which she imagined, gave to her second son a name which might denote the vanity of her former hopes: or she might be desirous to express, that the infant was born subject to the inconstancy and vanity of the things of this world, which she herself began to experience more and more every day. Grotius and others remark, that as the employments of these two brothers were the most simple and useful, so are they mentioned as the most early amongst men, by historians of all nations.
Related Commentaries of Genesis 4:2
Genesis 4:2
2 And she again bare his brother Abel.b And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.