And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
Jabal was the father or ancestor of those who dwell in tents and keep cattle, a pastoral way of life among fields and hills as keepers of flocks and herds. The verse belongs to the fourth chapter of Genesis, which gives the employments of the first family after the fall, with Cain as a tiller of the ground and Abel as a keeper of sheep. That pastoral tent-dwelling life with cattle was first lived by Abel and was continued by the descendants of Seth, who counted themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth seeking a better, heavenly country.
Jabal stands in the line of Cain, whose descendants became distinguished in mere earthly and material progress. After Cain withdrew from his father's household under God's curse, he went out from the presence of the Lord, casting away the promise of restored Eden to seek possessions and enjoyment in the earth under the curse of sin. He stood at the head of those who worship the god of this world, and his descendants continued regardless of God and in opposition to God's purposes for man.
Cain, though he had merited death for murder, was spared by a merciful Creator and given opportunity for repentance, but lived only to harden his heart and rebel against divine authority. Led on by Satan he became a tempter and the head of a line of bold, abandoned sinners, whose example and demoralizing influence spread until departure from God's plain commands filled the world with transgression, corruption and violence and led God to destroy the world. The crime and pollution flooding the earth fifteen centuries later was the fruition of Cain's influence and example. The sparing of Cain and the dark history of Cain and his descendants illustrate before the whole universe what would result from permitting the sinner to live on forever in rebellion against God, showing that God's forbearance only made the wicked more bold and defiant. The sentence of death pronounced on the fallen race for transgressing God's law is both just and merciful, for the longer men live in sin the more abandoned they become, and cutting short a career of unbridled iniquity and freeing the world from hardened rebels is a blessing rather than a curse.
Jabal was the father or ancestor of those who dwell in tents and keep cattle, a pastoral way of life among fields and hills as keepers of flocks and herds. The verse belongs to the fourth chapter of Genesis, which gives the employments of the first family after the fall, with Cain as a tiller of the ground and Abel as a keeper of sheep. That pastoral tent-dwelling life with cattle was first lived by Abel and was continued by the descendants of Seth, who counted themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth seeking a better, heavenly country.
Jabal stands in the line of Cain, whose descendants became distinguished in mere earthly and material progress. After Cain withdrew from his father's household under God's curse, he went out from the presence of the Lord, casting away the promise of restored Eden to seek possessions and enjoyment in the earth under the curse of sin. He stood at the head of those who worship the god of this world, and his descendants continued regardless of God and in opposition to God's purposes for man.
Cain, though he had merited death for murder, was spared by a merciful Creator and given opportunity for repentance, but lived only to harden his heart and rebel against divine authority. Led on by Satan he became a tempter and the head of a line of bold, abandoned sinners, whose example and demoralizing influence spread until departure from God's plain commands filled the world with transgression, corruption and violence and led God to destroy the world. The crime and pollution flooding the earth fifteen centuries later was the fruition of Cain's influence and example. The sparing of Cain and the dark history of Cain and his descendants illustrate before the whole universe what would result from permitting the sinner to live on forever in rebellion against God, showing that God's forbearance only made the wicked more bold and defiant. The sentence of death pronounced on the fallen race for transgressing God's law is both just and merciful, for the longer men live in sin the more abandoned they become, and cutting short a career of unbridled iniquity and freeing the world from hardened rebels is a blessing rather than a curse.