GENESIS 4


1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from Yahweh.

Now, here was a conception in sin, the originator of which was the serpent. When therefore, in the "set time" afterwards, "Eve bare Cain," though procreated by Adam, he was of the serpent, seeing that he suggested the transgression which ended in the conception of Cain. In this way, sin in the flesh being put for the serpent, Cain was of that wicked one, the pre-eminent sinner, and the first-born of the serpent's seed.

Elpis Israel 1.3.



Adam, the exiled, propagated himself, and filled the earth at last with a race in his own unhappy position. The race continues to this day, amid all the evils that result from man having to take care of himself instead of living under the open guidance and friendship of his Creator.

Seasons 2.44



14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Gal 6:7).

The plight of the rejected at the judgement seat will be 'greater than [they] can bear.

...To be exiled with shame into the land of the enemy, and there to be subject to poverty, pain, vagabondism, hunger, pestilence, and death, without hope of deliverance, will doubtless extort from each one the lamentation imputed to Cain,

Herald Feb 1854.



From thy face[s] shall I be hid

That the faces were connected with the cherubim seems unquestionable from other passages of Scripture where cherubim are described. The Lord spoke of them to Moses in the mount. Having commanded him to make an ark, or open chest, overlaid with gold, with a crown along its upper margin, he said,


"Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold. And thou shalt make two cherubim of beaten gold in the two ends of the mercy seat." In another place, this is explained thus -- "Out of the mercy-seat made he the cherubim on the two ends thereof." Then it is continued, "And the cherubim shalt stretch forth wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces one to another, toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee" (Exod. 25:10-21).

It is probable that the reason why Moses gave no description of them in Genesis was because he intended to speak more particularly when he came to record their introduction into the most holy place of the tabernacle.

In the text above recited, they are described as having wings and faces; and being made out of the same piece of gold as the mercy-seat, upon which they looked down, beholding, as it were, the blood sprinkled upon it; it is evident, they were symbols connected with the institution of atonement for sin through the shedding of blood.

But they were still more significative. They were God's throne in Israel. Hence, the psalmist saith,

"The Lord reigneth; He sitteth between the cherubim."

This throne was erected upon mercy; and for this reason it was that the covering of the ark containing the testimony, the manna (Exod. 16:33; John 6:33), and the resurrected rod (Numb. 17:8; Isaiah 11:1), was styled the Mercy seat, or throne, where the Lord covered the sins of the people.

It was also the Oracle, or place from which God communed with Israel through Moses. "There," said the Lord, "will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

Elpis Israel 1.5.



16 And Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Notwithstanding his crime Cain was permitted to live. But the seed of evil-doers never gets renown. Sooner or later their deeds of villany consign their names to reprobation. God hid His face from Cain, and exiled him from the settlements in Eden. He wandered still further to the East, "and dwelt in the land of Nod." There he founded a city, and called it Enoch. His offspring multiplied, and found out many inventions.

They became wandering tribes, dwelling in tents and tending cattle; others of them, musicians, and artificers in brass and iron. Their women were beautiful, and, as the descendants of Cain, untrained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, were vain in their imaginations, and demoralising in their associations.

Elpis Israel 1.4.



26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of Yahweh.

Seth's descendants in the direct line ended in Noah and Japheth at the time of the flood. His posterity, in this and the collateral branches, multiplied considerably, but for a time constituted a separate community from the progeny of Cain. During the lifetime of Enos, son of Seth, "they began to call themselves by the name of the Lord," or "sons of God" (Gen. 4:26; 6:2): while the faithless and corrupt worshippers of the land of Nod, were simply styled "men."

Elpis Israel 1.4.