And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
Lamech took unto him two wives. The irreligious and sensual character of the Cainites reached its acme in the time and person of Lamech, who is the first polygamist on record, and whether from his bold innovation on the primitive institution of marriage, which produced the most demoralizing effects on the antediluvian world, or from his being the ancestor of a family which acquired so great renown by its inventive talents, he is the only descendant of Cain of whom any memorials have been preserved.
Adah - beauty, ornament.
Zillah - a shadow. These two names indicate the position of these women as first and secondary wife.
Moveover, they mark the introduction of a new era, when other qualities were looked for in the female companions of men than those on which the mind of Adam was concentrated. His affection and lively interest in his partner had been expressed in the name given to her, Eve, the life-giving, the mother of all living. But now external attractions, beauty of features, gracefulness, polished elegance of manners, were become principal objects of desire and admiration. The primitive character of marriage, consisting in the union of one man and one woman, as an institution designed by God for domestic happiness, as well as the propagation of the race, was completely ignored, and wives were increased to gratify the lust of the eye and a fleshly mind. Polygamy, as in the case of Lamech, might be restricted for a time; but the contagion of his example spread with increasing rapidity during the subsequent generations, and gave rise to all that wild incontinence and lawless violence which occasioned the flood.