supplication to him not to be extreme in his wrath to him; but he made
him accursed, and threatened his posterity in the seventh generation. He
also cast him, together with his wife, out of that land. And when he was
afraid that in wandering about he should fall among Wild beasts, and by
that means perish, God bid him not to entertain such a melancholy
suspicion, and to go over all the earth without fear of what mischief he
might suffer from wild beasts; and setting a mark upon him, that he
might be known, he commanded him to depart.
2. And when Cain had traveled over many countries, he, with his wife,
built a city, named Nod, which is a place so called, and there he
settled his abode; where also he had children. However, he did not
accept of his punishment in order to amendment, but to increase his
wickedness; for he only aimed to procure every thing that was for his
own bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his
neighbors. He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by
rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasures
and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked
courses. He also introduced a change in that way of simplicity wherein
men lived before; and was the author of measures and weights. And
whereas they lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of
such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness. He first of all
set boundaries about lands: he built a city, and fortified it with
walls, and he compelled his family to come together to it; and called
that city Enoch, after the name of his eldest son Enoch. Now Jared was
the son of Enoch; whose son was Malaliel; whose son was Mathusela; whose
son was Lamech; who had seventy-seven children by two wives, Silla and
Ada. Of those children by Ada, one was Jabal: he erected tents, and
loved the life of a shepherd. But Jubal, who was born of the same mother
with him, exercised himself in music;7 and invented the psaltery and the
harp. But Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, exceeded all men
in strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances. He
procured what tended to the pleasures of the body by that method; and
first of all invented the art of making brass. Lamech was also the
father of a daughter, whose name was Naamah. And because he was so
skillful in matters of divine revelation, that he knew he was to be
punished for Cain's murder of his brother, he made that known to his
wives. Nay, even while Adam was alive, it came to pass that the
posterity of Cain became exceeding wicked, every one successively dying,
one after another, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in
war, and vehement in robberies; and if any one were slow to murder
people, yet was he bold in his profligate behavior, in acting unjustly,
and doing injuries for gain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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