The Ancestry of the Keynim (Kenites)
4:17 VA YEDA KAYIN ET ISHTO VA TAHAR VA TELED ET CHANOCH VA YEHI BONEH IR VA YIKRA SHEM HA IR KE SHEM BENO CHANOCH
וַיֵּדַע קַיִן אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד אֶת חֲנוֹךְ וַיְהִי בֹּנֶה עִיר וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הָעִיר כְּשֵׁם בְּנוֹ חֲנוֹךְ
KJ (King James translation): And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
BN (BibleNet translation): And Kayin knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Chanoch; then he established a village, and he named the village Chanoch after his son.
Thus begins the Toldot (genealogical table) of Kayin, the start of a very elaborate (and ultimately failed) attempt by the Redactor to turn all of these unconnected fables into history. though whether Toldot is a tribal list or a god list or a list of the kings of the Kenite dynasty is not immediately obvious. There is also the question: can we read Beney Ken as a variant of Beney Kena'an, in the way that Dutch and Deutsch are variations on an identical original today? Probably not, as one is spelled with a Kuph (ק) and the other with a Kaph (כ), but even that is not definitive as there are many Biblical words which are homophones but not homonyms and yet are also demonstrably dialect variations (Sarai and Sarah, Av-Ram and Av-Raham being the obvious first two for the list).
BONEH IR: And in addition, if Adam and Chavah are the first man and woman, and even if we can explain that, maybe, perhaps, YHVH, or Elohim, or both, provided a "helpmeet" for Kayin as they did previously for Adam, even then, why would he need to build a "city"; not even a town, a village, a mere hamlet, a caravanserai, a cave, a rondavel, a tent - but an entire city? I have translated IR as "village" here, assuming that the intention of the original, in creating a genealogical table, is to demonstrate the evolution from the founding patriarch, via the clan, to the tribe; so we begin with the wandering nomad Kayin, but then the first phase of sedentary life, which is not more yet than a village.
As noted towards the end of the previous commentary, Numbers 24:22 and Judges 4:11 refer to the Beney Ken (Kenites) as a tribe of southern Yisra-El, dwelling in mountain strongholds, while an off-shoot clan, according to Judges 4:11 and 1 Samuel 15:5, lived in the Sinai desert and were ruled by Chovav (Hobab), Mosheh's brother-in-law, or possibly father-in-law. This geographical location renders identification with their neighbours the Beney Edom almost inevitable; but how far should that identification be taken? We are told that Kayin founded Se'ir, the Edomite capital; but later we are also told that it was Esav who did this. It remains a matter of uncertainty, then, whether the Kenites were Kena'anites (Canaanites), or Edomites, or a unique tribe, or the Edomites were simply a sub-group of the Kena'anites, and to which tribe Kayin came to belong, or even founded.
This confusion is reflected in the genealogical table that now follows, since most of the names are repeated in the Kenite list: has an attempt taken place to interweave two lists, and if so, can we deduce which were Kenite and which Shetite? Or is it simply an attempt to homogenise?
The story of Shet, or Set in the Egyptian original, or Seth as he is usually rendered in English, is also the tale a homicidal family rivalry. Shet is the uncle of Osher (Osiris), and gores his nephew to death while disguised as a wild boar. In the Phoenician myth the rivalry is between Usous and Hypsouranius; in the Kena'anite it is Agenor and Belus.
What we can say for certain is that Shet was no son of Adam or Chavah, no brother of Kayin or Havel. In trying to anthologise the various tribal myths, and then knit them together with a superimposed historical narrative of apparent chronology, this has simply been used as a convenient link.
Enosh, Shet's son, simply means (or perhaps came to mean) "Mankind" (Ish/איש = "Man", Ishah/אישה= "Woman", Anashim/אנשים = "plural/People", Enosh/אנוש = "compound plural/Humankind"). Accrediting Shet with the fathering of Enosh allows the important Egyptians the kudos of primogeniture without insulting the aboriginal tribes by taking it from them; they retain it through the Adamic progeniture. Clever politics really! But look again at my link to Belus, which identifies a very different family, that of Io (Yah) and Ephron of Chevron, and connects it with the Phoenician founders of the Greek world - and then go to the essay "The Leprachauns of Palestine".
In precisely the same way the descent to No'ach (Noah) is artificial.
Numbers 24:17 makes Shet a people living close to Mo-Av (Moab), probably the nomadic Sutu of Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, and therefore completely unconnected with this Shet.
To understand the genealogical table in this chapter (the Kayin List), we need to read it in parallel with the genealogical table (the Shet List) in Genesis 5; what follows is the latter:
The Shet List
Adam, at the age of a hundred and thirty, and Chavah, age unknown, father Shet (שת); after which Adam lives several hundred more years and fathers more sons and daughters, which in part resolves the question above about who Kayin married; but at the same time it also raises another question, about the nature of incest.
KJ: And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
BN: And Iyrad was born to Chanoch; and Iyrad fathered Mechuya-El; and Mechiya-El fathered Metusha-El; and Metusha-El fathered Lamech.
The names are almost entirely El names at this stage; no Yah names at all; is this correct, or are the Yah names hidden inside?
IYRAD (עירד): Little is known about him beyond this reference, and his connections with Arad, unless he is a variant form of YARED (ירד), which is entirely likely; however, he is presented here as the son of the first man to build a city, namely Chanoch, and he is given a name that happens to include the word city (עיר), which would not happen if the correct name was Yared. Sheer coincidence? Probably, but the Bible is regularly subjected to mysticisms and would-be theories of this kind! And the Bible is also packed to the brim with complex word-play that is absolutely deliberate.
MECHUYA-EL (מחויאל): I have retained the variation of MECHIYA-EL (מחייאל), as with Penu-El/Peni-El, and many, many others; the Yehudit letters Yud (י) and Vav (ו) are not always easy to distinguish in an ancient parchment.
The name is usually rooted as MACHA + EL (אל + מחה) = "struck down by El"; not a name one is likely to wish on a newborn child. However Numbers 34:11 uses MACHAH in an entirely different sense = "to stretch" or "extend geographically". If we read MECHUYA-EL as MACHA-YAH-EL (מחה-יה-אל) the interpretation would be "he who extended the worship of YAH to the worshippers of EL", which would at the very least be intriguing. If one also reads METUSHA-EL (מתושאל) as a variant upon METU-SHALACH (מתושלח) - cf Genesis 5:21 for an explanation of why this is almost certainly the correct thing to do - the logic of this is further emphasised. Either way METUSHA-EL has to be read as "man of El", which gives us Kena'ani roots.
METUSHA-EL (מתושאל): There is no known root to give this name with its logical אל ending. However, what if it were not an אל ending? What if, instead of Metusha-El, it was in fact Metu-Sha'ul, or even Motu-Sha'ul? Given that Mot (מות) is Death and Sha'ul (שאול) the Underworld… stretching it, I know. Gesenius thinks it might possibly mean "Man of God", though he offers no derivation.
LAMECH (למך): Notes on this can be found in the commentary on Genesis 5:1-6:8. Is this the same Lamech as in 5:25 ff? Lamech (למך) from the unused root Lamach, which signifies "a strong young man".
Note the use of Yalad (ילד), "he fathered", rather than the usual (ויולד) "he begot". I have echoed this in my rendering of the Shet list above. The root yields YELED for "a boy" and YALDAH for "a girl", and also MOLEDET for "the motherland", which is how Yisra-El has always been regarded, rather than as a "fatherland" (erets avot - אֶרֶץ אַבוֹת).
4:19 VA YIKACH LO LEMECH SHETEY NASHIM SHEM HA ACHAT ADAH VE SHEM HA SHENIT TSILAH
The word "truly" in the King James translation is a nice poetic addition, but most definitely an addition.
VA YEDA KAYIN ET ISHTO (וידע קין את אשתו): Yet more problems consequent upon trying to make a continuous historical narrative out of a set of completely separate mythological fables! If Adam and Chavah were the first man and woman, and Kayin, Havel and Shet their only children, where did Kayin find a wife? We are expected to see Kayin as the son of Adam and Chavah in an empty world. And who on Earth was going to give their daughter as a bride to a man with that Mark branded in his forehead? And how long did he actually wander in the land of Nod, before the punishment was revoked, annulled, repealed on appeal, or simply forgotten - given the punishment, he is not allowed to set up a village and become sedentary, something you would only do anyway if you were a tribe of sufficient size to need a village?
And who, later on, did Chanoch (Enoch) marry to beget Irad etc? Clearly the world was well populated, and the Adam & Chavah tale not history at all, but myth, its history, or historicity, shown again to be an artificial link made by the later anthologisers.
Can we deduce from this that Adam and Chavah in the original story were not the first man and woman; or that those who redaced it as history simply made an error, or knew they were making an incongruity, but chose to live with that? Hertz makes the assumption that Kayin's wife must also have been his sister, born to Adam and Chavah after the events described in chapter 3, and notes the incest laws of Leviticus 18:9; however cf Av-Raham and Sarah, Yitschak and Rivkah, where sisterhood is also claimed. In all the comparable god-myths of the region the sun-god and moon-goddess are invariably both spouse and sibling, adding weight to the argument that the Biblical patriarchs were all originally gods and goddesses themselves, reduced to human sheikhs and princesses by the same historicising necessities at the Redaction. This is important for those who regard the Torah as literal history, and date the Creation from it; if Adam and Chavah are mere mythology, or folk-tale, the incongruities become irrelevant, the history is artifical, and the date of the origins could as well be 5 billion 7 million 800 thousand years ago, as the 5780 that they claim (I am writing this in March 2020, which is 5780 in the Jewish calendar).
As noted towards the end of the previous commentary, Numbers 24:22 and Judges 4:11 refer to the Beney Ken (Kenites) as a tribe of southern Yisra-El, dwelling in mountain strongholds, while an off-shoot clan, according to Judges 4:11 and 1 Samuel 15:5, lived in the Sinai desert and were ruled by Chovav (Hobab), Mosheh's brother-in-law, or possibly father-in-law. This geographical location renders identification with their neighbours the Beney Edom almost inevitable; but how far should that identification be taken? We are told that Kayin founded Se'ir, the Edomite capital; but later we are also told that it was Esav who did this. It remains a matter of uncertainty, then, whether the Kenites were Kena'anites (Canaanites), or Edomites, or a unique tribe, or the Edomites were simply a sub-group of the Kena'anites, and to which tribe Kayin came to belong, or even founded.
This confusion is reflected in the genealogical table that now follows, since most of the names are repeated in the Kenite list: has an attempt taken place to interweave two lists, and if so, can we deduce which were Kenite and which Shetite? Or is it simply an attempt to homogenise?
The story of Shet, or Set in the Egyptian original, or Seth as he is usually rendered in English, is also the tale a homicidal family rivalry. Shet is the uncle of Osher (Osiris), and gores his nephew to death while disguised as a wild boar. In the Phoenician myth the rivalry is between Usous and Hypsouranius; in the Kena'anite it is Agenor and Belus.
What we can say for certain is that Shet was no son of Adam or Chavah, no brother of Kayin or Havel. In trying to anthologise the various tribal myths, and then knit them together with a superimposed historical narrative of apparent chronology, this has simply been used as a convenient link.
Enosh, Shet's son, simply means (or perhaps came to mean) "Mankind" (Ish/איש = "Man", Ishah/אישה= "Woman", Anashim/אנשים = "plural/People", Enosh/אנוש = "compound plural/Humankind"). Accrediting Shet with the fathering of Enosh allows the important Egyptians the kudos of primogeniture without insulting the aboriginal tribes by taking it from them; they retain it through the Adamic progeniture. Clever politics really! But look again at my link to Belus, which identifies a very different family, that of Io (Yah) and Ephron of Chevron, and connects it with the Phoenician founders of the Greek world - and then go to the essay "The Leprachauns of Palestine".
In precisely the same way the descent to No'ach (Noah) is artificial.
Numbers 24:17 makes Shet a people living close to Mo-Av (Moab), probably the nomadic Sutu of Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, and therefore completely unconnected with this Shet.
*
To understand the genealogical table in this chapter (the Kayin List), we need to read it in parallel with the genealogical table (the Shet List) in Genesis 5; what follows is the latter:
The Shet List
Adam, at the age of a hundred and thirty, and Chavah, age unknown, father Shet (שת); after which Adam lives several hundred more years and fathers more sons and daughters, which in part resolves the question above about who Kayin married; but at the same time it also raises another question, about the nature of incest.
Shet, at the age of one hundred and five, begets Enosh (אנוש), the eponymous progenitor of the human race.
Enosh, at the age of ninety, fathers Keynan (קינן), who may be a dialect variation of Kayin, or of Kena'an (Canaan), or both, or neither, but if any of these then an amalgamation thereby of the three histories. Kinnahu is the Hurrian (possibly Chorite) word for the land of Kena'an; it means "purple", as do Io (Phoenician Yah, who gave her name to the Ionian sea and was the sister-wife of Ephron the Chitite of Chevron) and Phoinix (the Phoenician name for Phoenicia), and, of course, the Sanskrit Argaman, which will become one of the royal dyes later in the Torah.
Keynan, at the age of seventy, begets Mahalal-El: מהללאל (with vowels: מַהֲלַלְאֵל) = "praise of El".
Mahalal-El, at the age of sixty-five, fathers Yared (יֶרֶד): cf Irad in the Kayin list. The root means "to go down", as in "to emigrate"; whence the River Jordan/Yarden, in Arabic el-Urdun. Does this describe the tribe emigrating? As so often with Yehudit names, Yared alternates with Yered in the pronunciation of the text, though there are no vowels in the written version to indicate which is correct.
Yared, at the age of one hundred and sixty-two, fathers Chanoch (חֲנוֹךְ), generally called Enoch in the English-speaking world; he is on the Kayin list as the father of Irad, not the son of Yared, though it is entirely possible, given that grandchildren are often named for dead grandparents, that he was both; it is equally possible that one refers to the town or tribal territory, as the use of the word Ben/בן throughout the Tanach can be for either.
Chanoch, at the age of sixty-five, begets Metu-Shalach (מְתוּשֶׁלַח); not Methuselah, as usually given in the English; the final letter is a Chet (ח), not a Hey (ה). This is a variation of the Kayin list. The name literally means "man of a dart", which is so unlikely it must be a mistake for Metusha-El, who appears in the Kayin version of the list, below.
Metu-Shalach, at the age of one hundred and eighty-seven, fathers Lamech (לָמֶךְ), who is generally rendered as Lemech after the announcement of his birth; the name, in Arabic, infers "a strong young man", which is ironic in the light of what will follow.
Lamech, at the age of one hundred and eighty-two, fathers No'ach, or Noah as we know him in English. No'ach then begets Shem, the Semite people, Cham (Ham), the African people, and Yaphet, the Caucasians, who will, in Biblical terms, become the future human race after the Flood. I cannot resist noting that the Titan Prometheus, the one who stole fire from the gods and gave it to men, and who was punished by being chained to a rock in the Caucasus, where eagles came to feed on his liver, which was eternally renewed; that this Prometheus was the son of one Iapetus, who is clearly the same man as Yisra-Eli Yaphet, which makes Prometheus Noach's grandson (and what Iapetus did to Ouranos, as the link to his name describes, is almost certainly the same as what Yaphet's brother Kena'an did (but called his brothers to help him) to Noa'ch in the full version of the original which is presented somewhat expurgated in Genesis 9:22/23). I also cannot resist pointing out that Prometheus had a brother, Epimetheus, and that the latter name means "afterthought". Two sons with very different relationships with their father, the one very much overlooked, the other destined to carry both human knowledge and the world's sins, in his liver rather than on his shoulders; but still, another parallel of the Kayin and Havel myth.
As to the significance of the numbers, which is to say their ages, I am afraid I have nothing useful to offer in this regard.
We can now return to the text of Genesis 4:17, where Chanoch (Enoch) is the son of Kayin, and the genealogical table that is given is very different.
4:17 VA YEDA KAYIN ET ISHTO VA TAHAR VA TELED ET CHANOCH VA YEHI BONEH IR VA YIKRA SHEM HA IR KE SHEM BENO CHANOCH
CHANOCH (חנוך): From here onwards the names of people are almost always the names of places; probably also the names of tribes, or at least of the tribal chief.
As to the significance of the numbers, which is to say their ages, I am afraid I have nothing useful to offer in this regard.
*
We can now return to the text of Genesis 4:17, where Chanoch (Enoch) is the son of Kayin, and the genealogical table that is given is very different.
4:17 VA YEDA KAYIN ET ISHTO VA TAHAR VA TELED ET CHANOCH VA YEHI BONEH IR VA YIKRA SHEM HA IR KE SHEM BENO CHANOCH
וַיֵּדַע קַיִן אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד אֶת חֲנוֹךְ וַיְהִי בֹּנֶה עִיר וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הָעִיר כְּשֵׁם בְּנוֹ חֲנוֹךְ
KJ (King James translation): And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
BN (BibleNet translation): And Kayin knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Chanoch; then he established a village, and he named the village Chanoch after his son.
"The Book of Enoch" (the English rendition of Chanoch) later became the central book of Jewish mysticism. However, Genesis 46:9 and Exodus 6:14 make him a son of Re'u-Ven (Reuben), and Genesis 25:4 a son of Midyan - the latter the most likely candidate for that mystical work. We must read "son" in this sense as being a tributary tribe, ruled by or confederated with. The Qur'an (Surah 19:56-57 and 21:85-86) calls him Idris and venerates him likewise.
CHANOCH (חנך): "to make narrow" or "be narrow"; connected to ענק = "a rock" and חנק= "to strangle". LECHANEK (לחנך) = "to educate" or "bring up". CHANIYCH (חניך) = "initiated"; but also "skilled" in the sense of "tried and proven", which of course may be a variation of "initiated".
VA YEHI BONEH IR (ויהי בנה עיר): The text is very clear: Kayin built it, and named it for Chanoch. But Kayin has been condemned to eternal nomadism; so, did he actually dwell there, or did he go on wandering but leave his progeny there to build a sedentary home? If the punishment was carried out, then the latter, so how can he, or why would he, have built a city? Has the god been over-ruled on appeal? Or is there a clash of histories which the Redactor hoped we would fail to notice? We clearly have two myths mixed up, the scape-bull and the source-legend of the Kenites.
Where exactly is Chanoch anyway?
4:18 VA YIVALED LA CHANOCH ET IYRAD VE IYRAD YALAD ET MECHUYA-EL U MECHIYA-EL YALAD ET METUSHA-EL, U METUSHA-EL YALAD ET LAMECH
4:18 VA YIVALED LA CHANOCH ET IYRAD VE IYRAD YALAD ET MECHUYA-EL U MECHIYA-EL YALAD ET METUSHA-EL, U METUSHA-EL YALAD ET LAMECH
וַיִּוָּלֵד לַחֲנוֹךְ אֶת עִירָד וְעִירָד יָלַד אֶת מְחוּיָאֵל וּמְחִיּיָאֵל יָלַד אֶת מְתוּשָׁאֵל וּמְתוּשָׁאֵל יָלַד אֶת לָמֶךְ
KJ: And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
BN: And Iyrad was born to Chanoch; and Iyrad fathered Mechuya-El; and Mechiya-El fathered Metusha-El; and Metusha-El fathered Lamech.
The names are almost entirely El names at this stage; no Yah names at all; is this correct, or are the Yah names hidden inside?
IYRAD (עירד): Little is known about him beyond this reference, and his connections with Arad, unless he is a variant form of YARED (ירד), which is entirely likely; however, he is presented here as the son of the first man to build a city, namely Chanoch, and he is given a name that happens to include the word city (עיר), which would not happen if the correct name was Yared. Sheer coincidence? Probably, but the Bible is regularly subjected to mysticisms and would-be theories of this kind! And the Bible is also packed to the brim with complex word-play that is absolutely deliberate.
MECHUYA-EL (מחויאל): I have retained the variation of MECHIYA-EL (מחייאל), as with Penu-El/Peni-El, and many, many others; the Yehudit letters Yud (י) and Vav (ו) are not always easy to distinguish in an ancient parchment.
The name is usually rooted as MACHA + EL (אל + מחה) = "struck down by El"; not a name one is likely to wish on a newborn child. However Numbers 34:11 uses MACHAH in an entirely different sense = "to stretch" or "extend geographically". If we read MECHUYA-EL as MACHA-YAH-EL (מחה-יה-אל) the interpretation would be "he who extended the worship of YAH to the worshippers of EL", which would at the very least be intriguing. If one also reads METUSHA-EL (מתושאל) as a variant upon METU-SHALACH (מתושלח) - cf Genesis 5:21 for an explanation of why this is almost certainly the correct thing to do - the logic of this is further emphasised. Either way METUSHA-EL has to be read as "man of El", which gives us Kena'ani roots.
METUSHA-EL (מתושאל): There is no known root to give this name with its logical אל ending. However, what if it were not an אל ending? What if, instead of Metusha-El, it was in fact Metu-Sha'ul, or even Motu-Sha'ul? Given that Mot (מות) is Death and Sha'ul (שאול) the Underworld… stretching it, I know. Gesenius thinks it might possibly mean "Man of God", though he offers no derivation.
LAMECH (למך): Notes on this can be found in the commentary on Genesis 5:1-6:8. Is this the same Lamech as in 5:25 ff? Lamech (למך) from the unused root Lamach, which signifies "a strong young man".
Note the use of Yalad (ילד), "he fathered", rather than the usual (ויולד) "he begot". I have echoed this in my rendering of the Shet list above. The root yields YELED for "a boy" and YALDAH for "a girl", and also MOLEDET for "the motherland", which is how Yisra-El has always been regarded, rather than as a "fatherland" (erets avot - אֶרֶץ אַבוֹת).
4:19 VA YIKACH LO LEMECH SHETEY NASHIM SHEM HA ACHAT ADAH VE SHEM HA SHENIT TSILAH
וַיִּקַּח לוֹ לֶמֶךְ שְׁתֵּי נָשִׁים שֵׁם הָאַחַת עָדָה וְשֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִית צִלָּה
KJ: And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
BN: And Lamech took two wives; the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other Tsilah.
All the descendants of Kayin appear to have taken two wives: a tribal custom presumably; and yet Genesis 2:24 clearly establishes monogamy, which only Yistchak of the patriarchs will follow - Av-Ram will take Hagar and Keturah after Sarah, Ya'akov will take four wives, and Mosheh at least two, though the text is unclear on the precise number.
There is some apparent confusion here anyway, for according to Genesis 36:2-4 Adah was the daughter of Eylon the Chitite, a Kena'anite group from which Esav took himself wives. This conflicts with Genesis 26:34 in which his wives are given differently.
ADAH (עדה): a name of many meanings:
i) ADAH = "to pass by" (appears in Job 28:8 but practically nowhere else)
ii) "To attack in a hostile manner".
i) ADAH = "to pass by" (appears in Job 28:8 but practically nowhere else)
ii) "To attack in a hostile manner".
iii) ADIN (עדין) = "soft, delicate"; ADINAH (עדינה)= "slender, pliant". The English name Edna derives from the same root. In the Hiphil this then yields "to put on ornaments", whence ADAH is usually reckoned to have meant "an ornament" or "beauty".
HOWEVER:
HOWEVER:
iv) EDAT YISRA-EL (עדת ישראל) from the same root = "the congregation of Yisra-El", (Exodus 12:3) as does EDAT BENEY YISRA-EL (עדת בני ישראל) in Exodus 16:1-9; while EDAT YHVH (עדת יהוה) in Numbers 27:17 and HA EDAH (העדה) in Leviticus 4:15 give us a religious congregation, connecting to the feminine noun EDAH (עדה) = "a testimony" or "a precept of the divinity". From this an EDUT (עדות) is "a precept of god, law of Mosheh, witness", even "Psalm".
AND:
v) IDAH, again from the same root, and connected to the Arabic and Aramaic words = "menstruation", or any other "appointed time", or "meeting", or "assembly" (as in MO'ED and MO'ADON). The two-letter root letters Ayin/Dalet (עד) are the same as the root of Eden and innumerable other words known to be of Chaldean or Assyriac rather than Kena'anite origin.
AND:
v) IDAH, again from the same root, and connected to the Arabic and Aramaic words = "menstruation", or any other "appointed time", or "meeting", or "assembly" (as in MO'ED and MO'ADON). The two-letter root letters Ayin/Dalet (עד) are the same as the root of Eden and innumerable other words known to be of Chaldean or Assyriac rather than Kena'anite origin.
A number of Biblical characters bear the root in their name: IDO (עדו), a prophet and writer referred to in 1 Chronicles 27:21 and thought to be the grandfather of the prophet Zechar-Yah (Zechariah); ADI-EL (עדיאל), again referred to in Chronicles (1:27:25); ADA-YAH (עדיה), the grandfather of King Yoshi-Yahu (Josiah) whose name crops up in a number of books of the Bible, but principally 2 Kings 22 ff; Yoshi-Yahu was one of the principal patrons of the first Tanach, and the naming of a patriarchess as Adah may have been a deliberate courtesy to the King; I have no evidence to support this. There is also ADINAH (עדינה), one of King David's captains (1 Chronicles 11:42); ADITAYIM (עדתיים), a town in the tribe of Yehudah (Joshua 15:36); ADUL-AM (עדולם), a city in the plains of Yehudah close by the cave of Adul-Am, which figures largely in the young David's story; and others.
TSILAH (צלה): Even more problematical; it is usually given as "shadow" from the root TSEL (צל); but see Chavah notes and Genesis 2:22. Tselah (צלע) with a final Ayin (ע) instead of Hey (ה) is the rib from which Chavah was reputedly made, and connects with the verb TSOLE'AH (צעלע) = "to limp", itself connected to Ya'akov as the Yisra-Eli Oedipus/Achilles/limping-god or goat-god - see notes on that subject later.
4:20 VA TELED ADAH ET YAVAL HU HAYAH AVI YOSHEV OHEL U MIKNEH
4:20 VA TELED ADAH ET YAVAL HU HAYAH AVI YOSHEV OHEL U MIKNEH
וַתֵּלֶד עָדָה אֶת יָבָל הוּא הָיָה אֲבִי יֹשֵׁב אֹהֶל וּמִקְנֶה
KJ: And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
BN: And Adah bore Yaval; he was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and keep cattle.
There is disagreement between this and the later account of Lamech, where the only child is No'ach.
YUVAL and YAVAL are probably twins, or at least aspects of the same figure; TUVAL is probably unconnected except in appearance. YAVAL is given as the progenitor of cattle-breeding nomads, YUVAL as the founder of music. But there is also TUVAL-KAYIN, the first blacksmith, in verse 22. Is this an attempt to list the tribal chiefs and explain the origins of things simultaneously?
YAVAL (יבל): Raising again the suggestion above, that these may be, or may at one point in history have been Yah names; but what an oddity of a Yah name, seeming to contain Ba'al in it as well; Gesenius offers some detailed background on this.
YUVAL (יובל)= "a river"; YAVAL = "to run", as a sore. The Hiphil (causative form) gives "to lead, bring, bear, carry" and was used for people, produce and gifts. TEVEL = "fertile" or "populated" earth; TUVAL (תובל) comes from the same root, as does YAVAL = "to rejoice", which links it to the Jubilee (see below).
As to his being the father of the Bedou and the cattle-breeders; how then does he come so long after Havel/Abel, who was already both? And note the link between Kayin as bull and Tuval-Kayin as the father of cattle-breeders. Is it possible the two were once the same, or the two stories have become confused
YAVAL and YUVAL: both names connect to YOVEL, the jubilee year when there was no sacred king; and twins in mythology are less coincidental or accidental than in real life. This may then be a memory of the sacred kingship and of the rites involved, possibly linked with a division of the sacred kingship into 6-month periods, shared by the twins (and known as Tanism). Yuval is identified as the inventor of music, and the root has the sense of "bringing forth produce from the earth in great abundance", which of course is the object of the sacred-kingship.
The root - יבל/Yavul = "to flow" - also links to rivers flowing violently, whence MABUL is the flood; and we are about to experience a severe example of that in Genesis 6 ff. TEVEL means a "fertile" or "inhabited" region. TUVAL is the progenitor of the Tibareni of Asia Minor; near the Euxine sea west of the Moschi. Tubal Kayin would thus mean the smith of Scoria.
4:21 VE SHEM ACHIV YUVAL HU HAYAH AVI KOL TOPHES KINOR VE UGAV
4:21 VE SHEM ACHIV YUVAL HU HAYAH AVI KOL TOPHES KINOR VE UGAV
וְשֵׁם אָחִיו יוּבָל הוּא הָיָה אֲבִי כָּל תֹּפֵשׂ כִּנּוֹר וְעוּגָב
KJ: And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
BN: And his brother's name was Yuval; he was the ancestor of all who play the harp and pipe.
YUVAL (יובל): Properly from the selfsame root as YAVAL (as noted above), and having the identical meaning; it allows us to see them as a pair of twins. However, the explanation of the name in this case does make sense etymologically, as we know that our own word Jubilee comes from this root; thus: Jubilee = "festival day" of some sort or another, heralded by the sounding of a trumpet or other instrument. KEREN HA YOVEL (קרן היבל), the Horn of Jubilee, is mentioned thus in Joshua 6:5, and hinted at in Exodus 19:13; it is also frequently referred to as SHOPHAR HA YOVEL (שופר היבל), the famous SHOFAR being the ram's horn still blown to this day to herald in the New Year; references to it by this name are too numerous to detail here. There was also a Kena'ani god of music named Yuval, who is likely to have been the same "person".
4:22 VE TSILAH GAM HI YALDAH ET TUVAL-KAYIN LOTESH KOL CHORESH NECHOSHET U VARZEL VA ACHOT TUVAL KAYIN NA'AMAH
וְצִלָּה גַם הִוא יָלְדָה אֶת תּוּבַל קַיִן לֹטֵשׁ כָּל חֹרֵשׁ נְחֹשֶׁת וּבַרְזֶל וַאֲחוֹת תּוּבַל קַיִן נַעֲמָה
KJ: And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
BN: And Tsilah too, she bore Tuval-Kayin, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron; and Tuval Kayin's the sister was Na'amah.
TUVAL KAYIN (תובל-קין): The first time with, the second without a hyphen, in post 9th century CE Jewish versions - which is correct?
From Yuval (יובל) to Tuval (תובל) is not a problem if one remembers that the numerical value of YAH = 15 is frequently written as Tet + Vav (9+ 6) = TU = 15 instead of Yud = Hey (10 + 5) = YAH = 15. If correct Tuval should have been טובל rather than תובל, and I therefore reject the idea, though I rather enjoyed teasing you with it for a moment.
However, TUVAL, as noted above, is usually reckoned to refer to the Tibareni, a nation of South Asia Minor on the Euxine Sea to the west of the Moschi. If Kayin is to be considered, as I believe he should be, as the founder of the Kenite tribe, Tubal-Kayin may reasonably be considered as an off-shoot of that tribe. As with his half-brothers, the explanation of the name as founder of brass and iron smithing seems to be popular folk-lore rather than etymology, and as such much more credible. Graves identifies him with the Greek Tabali, who later became the Tibareni, Anatolian tribesmen described by Herodotus as neighbours of the iron-working Chalybes.
This leaves just one small problem. His forging instruments of brass is entirely feasible as the Brass or Bronze age can be dated to around 3000 BCE; the Iron age, however, does not begin until about the 10th century BCE - the time of King David approximately. So how does Tubal get to "forge instruments of brass and iron" in what are supposed to be antediluvian times, i.e. at least 2500 BCE? Hertz answers this by treating it as an error for copper, arguing that brass is an alloy while copper is dug from the ground. This is pragmatic, but not logical. Rashi treats brass as copper, but leaves iron as iron!
NA'AMAH (נעמה): A privilege this, for women do not usually get much of a mention in the Ezraic editions. Not that this is much of a mention, but it is still more than YALAD VANIM U VANOT ("he bore sons and daughters"), as is usual. As Adah means "a beautiful ornament", so Na'amah means "very pleasant", from the root NA'EM (נעם): these may seem to have been sexist names for their women, but were more likely epithets of the goddess - and hints thereby that this TOLDOT was in fact a godlist. Her "worshippers" are mentioned as a tribe in Numbers 26:40, though there the name is connected to her masculine equivalent, Na'aman, himself a descendant of Ard and Bela, which may well be variations on Iyrad and Ba'al. Her name today is rendered in English as Naomi, or perhaps it should be NA'OMI (again נעמי), who was the mother-in-law of Rut (Ruth).
This converts into several proper names, including:
This converts into several proper names, including:
NA'AM (נעם) in 1 Chronicles 4:15.
NA'AMAH (נעםה) as here, and also 1 Kings 14:21, and 2 Chronicles 12:11-13 as the Amonite mother of King Rechav-Am (Rehoboam - רְחַבְעָם).
NA'AMI (נעםי) for the Beney Na'amat (Na'amathites) of Numbers 26:40.
A town in Yehudah (Joshua 15:41), and another, or perhaps the same town of that name in Numbers 26:40 and Job 2:11 and 11:1;
NA'AMAN (נעמן) a son of Bin-Yamin (Benjamin) in Genesis 46:21, and an Assyrian general in 2 Kings 5:1 who was cured of leprosy by bathing in the river Yarden (Jordan), on the advice of Elisha the prophet - אֱלִישָׁ֣ע. Strangely it is this last that gives us the biggest clue; by making him Assyrian, the editor kept the story without having to keep the myth behind it, but we can decode it. Na'amah is the healing water goddess of the river Yarden (Jordan), which flows out of its source at Banyas, also known as Ba'al Gad (see Joshua 11:17 et al), later known as Caesarea Philippi and the site of an ancient temple to the god Pan (which fact is not insignificant in relation to the tales of Ya'akov/Jacob later), at the foot of Mount Chermon, where the sacred shrine of Chavah was located!
(see also under Lilit)
(see also under Lilit)
Jewish legend makes Na'amah No'ach's wife, which becomes an intersting coincidence once you have read the above about Banyas.
4:23 VA YOMER LEMECH LE NASHAV ADAH VE TSILAH SHEMA'AN KOLI NESHEY LEMECH HA'EZENAH IMRATI KIY ISH HARAGTI LE PHITS'I VE YELED LE CHABURATI
4:23 VA YOMER LEMECH LE NASHAV ADAH VE TSILAH SHEMA'AN KOLI NESHEY LEMECH HA'EZENAH IMRATI KIY ISH HARAGTI LE PHITS'I VE YELED LE CHABURATI
וַיֹּאמֶר לֶמֶךְ לְנָשָׁיו עָדָה וְצִלָּה שְׁמַעַן קוֹלִי נְשֵׁי לֶמֶךְ הַאְזֵנָּה אִמְרָתִי כִּי אִישׁ הָרַגְתִּי לְפִצְעִי וְיֶלֶד לְחַבֻּרָתִי
KJ: And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
BN: And Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Tsilah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me...
This is presented in the form of verse; and presumably was some ancient fable or proverb, perhaps even liturgy, which the Redactor did not want to leave out. But why? Part of ancient Law? If the animal scapegoat's death is valued at 7 when murdered, a genuine murder is valued more highly; and Lamech has two murders on his hands, though no details are given. The didactic parable is clear when linked to v 14. The question is, did Lamech kill the scapegoat? Or did he kill a man who had seized the horns of the altar in order to elude the GO'EL and seek justice for a murder committed BI SHEGAGAH - "in a moment of madness", or "by accident"? See notes to Genesis 4:14.
And if not, who did he kill? Graves suggests that it was in fact he who killed Kayin, and that this is why his curse is 11 times greater than Kayin's (or 7 times greater, depending on how we read SHIVATAYIM in Genesis 4:15). There is no evidence for this, and though the text is ambivalent - he says he has slain two men - it isn't really that ambivalent. Yet Graves goes on to suggest that Lamech killed Tuval-Kayin as well. His full version can be found at Graves 108... The laws regarding the avenging of murder (both the Go'el and the Bi Shegagah) are detailed in Numbers 35:13 and Joshua 20:1/3 with the establishment of Cities of Refuge.
What is especially fascinating about this verse is the fact that Biblical exegetists of the religiously Jewish persuasion treat the verses as being triumphal and boasting, whereas they actually read like a man in terror of his soul for the grievous wrong he has done. In their view he is gloating that Kayin gets 7-fold vengeance, but lucky old him, he's going to get 77-fold, and enjoy every (literally) bloody minute of it. When surely he is worried about the pain he will himself suffer at receiving such revenge? Hertz also treats the song as "heathen", an interesting choice of vocabulary.
The story he is telling his wives takes us back to the comment at the end of the last Paresha, referencing 7, 77 and 777. The Jubilee, which is deeply embedded in the above as we have seen, is 7 years or 7 times 7 years + 1. The number 7 is of course YHVH's sacred number. The Yisra-Eli religion, as has been repeatedly pointed out, was originally a fertility cult (and still is, given the centrality of the Shema). The number 7 is written in Yehudit with the letter Zayin - (ז) – which just happens also to be the word for "penis", the male instrument of fertility. We will also be able to add, when the next part of this chapter gives us the Toldot, the genealogical table of the families of Adam and Shet and Kayin, that Lamech will have yet another number 7 to his credit, being the 7th generation in the descent of Kayin.
4:24 KI SHIV'ATAYIM YUKAM KAYIN VE LEMECH SHIV'IM VE SHIV'AH
4:24 KI SHIV'ATAYIM YUKAM KAYIN VE LEMECH SHIV'IM VE SHIV'AH
כִּי שִׁבְעָתַיִם יֻקַּם קָיִן וְלֶמֶךְ שִׁבְעִים וְשִׁבְעָה
KJ: If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
BN: "So Kayin shall be avenged sevenfold, and Lamech seventy- sevenfold."
A strange piece of folk-lore that has somehow been remembered and added in, if rather incomplete.
The word "truly" in the King James translation is a nice poetic addition, but most definitely an addition.
thank you for increase my knowlege...
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