Genesis 4:23 Commentary and Bible Study

From the line of Cain comes Lamech. His viciousness is seen in the single statement which the Bible records him as saying, known as the Song of Lamech. When the Scripture records just this one instance of the speech of a man, the words that are recorded are always significant, so that it is not fanciful to take that single statement and make it characteristic of the whole person. This is a boasting poem, the earliest secular literature of the Bible. ‘For I have slain a man to my wounding.’ I have slain a man. It probably means, even though he wounded me, even though I was weakened, I was so great that I slew him, and overpowered him. Perhaps he ran at him and slashed at him, but he still had such superior strength. ‘And a young man to my hurt’, which in the Hebrew could indicate that the young man was slain just for kicks, for supremacy, for superiority over him, to dominate him. Lamech was a boaster, and what he boasted in was his own murderous violence. He does not refer to his wives by their names but by his own name, for in his mind all the world revolved around him. Far from being ashamed at his evil act, he takes pride in his vengeful spirit. His evil heart refuses to feel shame so that he thrusts his excessive violence into the face of his own wives as if he dares anyone to challenge him about it or to say that he has done wrong. He is happy to live in a world where might prevails completely, regardless of right. He is even ready to threaten his own wives.Lamech had murdered a man who had wounded him. It had been an act of pride, an act of revenge that was totally out of proportion. He justified this to himself on the basis of his grossly inflated view of his own significance. If Cain was to be avenged by God sevenfold, then Lamech who in his own mind was far greater than Cain was to be avenged seventy-seven times. He had only been wounded but had taken extreme revenge. He was truly a descendant of Cain exhibiting in even more extreme form the ferocity of Cain, and showing that sinful human nature will only get worse and worse if not restrained. Whereas Cain’s vengeance was to be exacted by God, Lamech was to take revenge himself against anyone who dared to harm him. Instead of trembling with horror at what Cain had done he makes himself ten times worse. This is the state of the line of Cain. Cain, perhaps originally thought by Eve to be the one promised by God, turns out to be the father of godlessness.