Genesis 4:18 Commentary and Bible Study

Cain’s name was not obliterated from the earth as we might expect following the murder of Abel. He was allowed by God not only to live, but to populate the earth. These names have meanings in the Hebrew language: Enoch – ‘initiated’, ‘dedicated’; Mehujael – ‘destroyed of God’; Methusael – ‘man of God’; Lamech – ‘powerful’, and unless we say that the judgment of Babel resulted in new invented names being given which matched the meanings found in an earlier language, then when the Scripture draws our attention to the meanings of these names, it is an indication of the ancient place of the Hebrew language, and its continuity with what went before Babel, perhaps Hebrew being the one language that was not changed and belonging to the godly line. Even in the ungodly line that came from Cain there were references in these names to God. Man did not become an atheist immediately.