genesis-4:2-kjv,nlt

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Genesis 4:2

Abel = = transitoriness. read more

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Genesis 4:2

And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.The speculation has long prevailed that Cain and Abel were twins, based on the omission of a second statement that Adam knew his wife. This may "very well be the meaning,"[7] but it should not be pressed. Also, it appears that the names of these two brothers were "bestowed by the mother,"[8] which is another hint of the matriarchate, when a man left his father and mother and went to live... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 4:2

Genesis 4:2. Abel— This word signifies vanity. Calmet says, that Eve having observed in the conduct of Cain that he was not the deliverer which she imagined, gave to her second son a name which might denote the vanity of her former hopes: or she might be desirous to express, that the infant was born subject to the inconstancy and vanity of the things of this world, which she herself began to experience more and more every day. Grotius and others remark, that as the employments of these two... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Genesis 4:2

2. Abel was a keeper of sheep—literally, "a feeder of a flock," which, in Oriental countries, always includes goats as well as sheep. Abel, though the younger, is mentioned first, probably on account of the pre-eminence of his religious character. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 4:1-8

Was Eve thanking God for helping her bear a son (Cain), [Note: Mathews, p. 265; Wenham, pp. 101-2.] or was she boasting that she had created a man (Cain) as God had created a man (Adam, Genesis 4:1)? [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., pp. 111-12; Waltke, Genesis, p. 96.] The former alternative seems preferable (cf. Genesis 4:25). "Cain" means "acquisition," a portent of his own primary proclivity. Abel, from the Hebrew hebel, means "breath, vapor, exhalation, or what ascends." As things... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 4:1-16

2. The murder of Abel 4:1-16Chapter 4 shows the spread of sin from Adam’s family to the larger society that his descendants produced. Not only did sin affect everyone, but people became increasingly more wicked as time passed. Human self-assertion leads to violence. Genesis 4:1-16 show that the Fall affected Adam and Eve’s children as well as themselves. Genesis 4:17-26 trace what became of Cain and Seth and their descendants. Note that the chapter begins and ends with the subject of... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:1-26

Cain and Abel. The Descendants of CainThe narrative, which forms part of the Primitive document, impressively shows how sin, having once appeared, became hereditary in the human race, and speedily developed into its most revolting form. Its details enable us to see how jealousy, when indulged, leads to hatred and murder, and violates not only the ties of humanity but those of family affection; how the sinner casts off all regard for the truth and for his natural obligations; how progress in sin... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 4:2

(2) Abel.—Of this name Dr. Oppert imagined that it was the Assyrian Abil, a son. Really it is Hebel; and there is no reason why we should prefer an Assyrian to a Hebrew etymology. An Accadian derivation would have been important, but Assyrian is only a Semitic dialect, and Abil is the Hebrew ben. Hebel means a thing unstable, not abiding, like a breath or vapour. Now, we can scarcely suppose that Eve so called her child from a presentiment of evil or a mere passing depression of spirits; more... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 4:1-26

Genesis 4:0 'Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, or it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.' George Eliot, Middlemarch. Cain and Abel Genesis 4:3-5... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:1-26

CAIN AND ABELGenesis 4:1-26IT is not the purpose of this narrator to write the history of the world. It is not his purpose to write even the history of mankind. His object is to write the history of redemption. Starting from the broad fact of man’s alienation from God, he means to trace that element in human history which results in the perfect re-union of God and man. The keynote has been struck in the promise already given that the seed of the woman should prevail over the seed of the... read more

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Genesis 4:2

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Genesis 4:2

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 4:2

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Genesis 4:2

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 4:1-8

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 4:1-16

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:1-26

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 4:2

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 4:1-26

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:1-26

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