Bible History - Old Testament

(John Hannent) #1

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streams mentioned as issuing from Paradise were the Tigris and the Euphrates, and
we can readily conceive that the changes subsequently produced by the flood may
have rendered the other descriptions of the district inapplicable to its present aspect.


(^5) It may be well here to note that whenever the word Lord is printed in our English
Bibles in capitals, its Hebrew equivalent is Jehovah - a term which marks the idea of
the covenant God.
(^6) A modem commentator holds that the words of Genesis 4:17, only imply that Cain
"was building," not that he had finished the building of his city.
(^7) A modern critic has rendered Lamech's Sword-song thus:
"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my
speech; Yea, I slay men for my wound, and young men for my hurt. For if Cain
is avenged sevenfold, Lamech seventy and sevenfold" -
referring to the invention of Tubal-Cain, and meaning that if God avenged Cain, he
would with his sword avenge himself seventy and sevenfold for every wound and
every hurt.
(^8) Perhaps "Tubal, the smith."
(^9) The word is used for "man," from his frailty, in such passages as Psalm 8:4; 90:3;
103:15, etc.
(^10) With the exception of Seth, who, of course, was not the eldest son of Adam.
(^11) Such are the numbers according to the Hebrew text. There are differences between
this and the Greek translation of the so-called LXX (the Septuagint), and also the
Samaritan text. For further particulars we refer to ch. 10, where also the difference
between the chronologies of Ussher and Hales is explained.
(^12) Jude 14, 15. This quite accords with what was generally known about Enoch. One
of the Old Testament apocryphal works, written before the time of Christ
(Ecclesiasticus 44:16), has it that "Enoch was translated, being an example of
repentance to all generations;" while another book (B. of En. i. 9) expressly states,
that he prophesied the coming of the Lord for judgment upon the ungodly.
(^13) Other theories concerning the "sons of God" have been broached, but cannot be
maintained on careful and accurate investigation. Any reader curious on the subject
(^)

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