And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And Adam knew Eve his wife - Murphy translates 'the man;' but there is no good reason for this change. The word is evidently used as the designation of the first man, and it occurs exactly in the same connection without the article (Genesis 4:25), where it is rendered "Adam."
Cain. This was the name of the firstborn son of the primeval pair. As appears from the Scriptures, names were bestowed upon individuals in the early ages, as is still the practice in Oriental countries, with reference to some remarkable circumstance in the experience of the parents, or attendant upon the birth of the child. Sometimes the name was changed in the course of afterlife, and a new one substituted, as a memorial of some special attribute of the character, or some memorable event in the history, of the person who bore it. Accordingly, Cain's name has been variously viewed. Some consider it as having been given at his birth; and the subjoined clause introduced to assign the reason of its imposition. It is commonly interpreted as denoting 'possession,' 'acquisition' х qayin (H7014) being supposed to be a derivative from qaaniytiy (H7069), I have obtained or gotten]; and the name is considered to have been suggested by that exclamation to which Eve, in the ardour of her joy at the sight of a child which first awakened the maternal feelings in her breast, gave utterance. It was an expression of pious gratitude, indicating that it was 'a possession' she valued above everything else.
Gesenius, however, who maintains that the latter clause of the verse stands quite isolated and independent, derives the name "Cain" from a Hebrew word signifying a lance or spear, the weapon of murder, and considers that it was bestowed upon him after he had become a fratricide. Bunsen, wishing to preserve a close adherence to the original, spells it Qayin, and, with Von Bohlen, considers it as denoting 'smith,' in reference to the skill in metallic works for which his family was early distinguished. The doubt that has been expressed by many writers, as to there being any connection between the name "Cain" and the words which immediately follow in the first verse, is strengthened by the marked difference of this passage from Genesis 4:25; because it is not said here, as in that passage, "Eve bare a son, and called his name Cain (cf. Genesis 5:29). Others think, that with minds continually oscillating, after the fall, between grief and hope, the conversation of our first parents would frequently turn upon the advent of Him who was to conquer the serpent, and therefore that the predominant thought which the arrival of the newly-born infant would stir up was very naturally a persuasion that he was the promised seed.
Hence, they render the clause, 'I have gotten a man according to the Lord's word or promise,' as the passage is translated in the marginal reading of Queen Elizabeth's Bible (cf. Haggai 2:5, where the phrase is so rendered). By a third class, who take a similar view, and conclude that our fallen progenitors would certainly, in these circumstances, give expression to their reigning sentiments, by designating this destined victor of the serpent by some appropriate appellation, the clause is understood in this manner, 'I have gotten a man-Yahweh.' They consider the correct form of this latter word to be not Yahweh (H3068) (Yahweh, Jehovah), but Yahªweh (H3068) (Yahaweh), the future tense of the verb of existence, signifying 'he shall be,' equivalent to the phrase, ho (G3588) erchomenos (G2064) "he that should come," which so frequently occurs in the New Testament; and thus interpreted in the proper meaning of the word, the exclamation of Eve is regarded as originating in a direct reference to the first promise (Genesis 3:15).
This view, however, seems liable to various weighty objections. In the first place, although we have assumed the probability that Hebrew might be the primitive language (see the note at Genesis 2:19), there is no positive certainty that it was; and if the passage, as given by Moses, was merely a translation of Eve's exclamation, the name of the Divine Being would naturally be expressed by the word which was in constant use in the historian's age. In the second place, the occurrence of the particle 'et (H854) before Yahweh (H3068) clearly determines that the latter is not to be viewed as part of a verb, but as a proper name; and had there been the supposed reference to the proto-evangelion, the promise of a Redeemer, undoubtedly the definite article would have been used before 'iysh (H376), and the passage have stood thus: 'I have gotten the man, Yahaweh.' In the third place, the name Yahweh (Jehovah), which, according to this hypothesis, was invented by Eve to designate the promised Deliverer, is used throughout the Scriptures as a general name of the Divine Being, and, instead of being the exclusive appellation of the second person of the Trinity, is indiscriminately applied to all the three. For these reasons we reject the proposed interpretation, with others, such as that in the Syriac version, 'I have gotten a man (for the service of) the Lord,' and adhere to the translation adopted in the authorized version, "I have gotten a man from (or by the help of) the Lord," (See instances where the 'et (H854) bears the signification of 'from' or 'by,' in Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 34:1; Deuteronomy 2 Kin. 33:35 ; and others will be found in Noldius' Concordance.)