Q&A: A Question on the Plain Meaning of Genesis Chapters 4–5
A Question on the Plain Meaning of Genesis Chapters 4–5
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the dialogue between God and Cain, God says: "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord placed a sign on Cain, lest anyone who found him strike him."
On the one hand, God promises Cain that whoever kills him will be "avenged sevenfold" (which, on the plain reading, seems to mean that he will be punished seven times over compared to the punishment God gave Cain). On the other hand, God places a sign on Cain that will prevent harm from coming to him.
Wouldn't God's sign prevent harm to Cain 100%? If so, what is the point of the promise to punish anyone who harms Cain?
I continued looking into the following verses and came across two verses that seem like a key to understanding the issue.
In chapter 4, verse 24, Lamech says: "For Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, but Lamech seventy-sevenfold," and in chapter 5, verse 31, it says: "And all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died."
It seems to me that, simply speaking, each verse stands on its own, but on the other hand the strong similarity between them is confusing, and apparently hints at a connection between them.
How are these verses supposed to be understood? Is there a connection between them?
Seemingly, in Cain's case, "sevenfold" is the punishment for whoever harms Cain. In Lamech's case, it seems that Lamech is boasting that he killed a man and a child, and says "seventy-sevenfold" as an expression of the multiplied punishment coming to him relative to Cain. But that doesn't fit with the first understanding of "sevenfold."
In short, I would be glad to know whether the Rabbi has an interesting plain-sense explanation that could help make this whole passage clear.
Thank you
Answer
As I understand it, the sign does not prevent harm from coming to Cain; rather, it marks that he is protected by the Holy One, blessed be He, and that anyone who harms him will be avenged. It also indicates that there is a prohibition against murder, in order to educate the world about that (which is why he wandered through the world).
Your note about Lamech's age is interesting, and I hadn't noticed it. I thought perhaps it was seven times Cain's age when he was killed. But in Seder Olam it says that he died at age 700, and it seems that Lamech was given another 77 years beyond that. In other words, his vengeance is that after killing Cain he would live only 77 more years, and that would be it (apparently he was expected to live longer). And perhaps this is also the meaning of "Cain shall be avenged sevenfold"—that is, he would die at age 700.
By the way, from Lamech's wording it sounds like he killed him unintentionally rather than deliberately, and it is not clear how much vengeance he was actually liable for.
Discussion on Answer
What makes even less sense is: how were there already other people in the world that he needed protection from?
There weren't yet other people he needed protection from. Rashi writes that Cain's concern was the wild animals.
Yitzhak, then where did Cain's wife come from?
Forgive me, with all due respect. But the Lamech of chapter 5 is not the Lamech who killed a child for wounding him.
That said, I also noticed that both of them are called Lamech, and the number 7 surrounds them.