Genesis 4:17-22 - Lamech married two women

4:17,18

We now get two lineages from Adam and Eve, starting with the lineage from Cain. We are not given any information on where his wife came from. The Enoch here is not the one we meet later in chapter 5. “Cain was then building a city”. A city could be quite a small place, and we should not be thinking in terms of the large cities we usually think of today. We then get various descendents leading up to Lamech.

4:19-22

With Lamech things really start to turn sour, though things are not all bad. The redeeming features are in verses 20-22 with various skills being developed. A civilisation can produce both good and bad things. However, the tale with Lamech is predominantly evil. The first sign of trouble is that Lamech married two women. The Biblical picture on polygamy is, at least superficially, rather confusing. The purpose at the outset (Gen 2) is that there is one man and one woman, husband and wife. At various points in the Old Testament polygamy seems to be common. By the time of the New Testament there is no doubt, God’s command is one man and one woman for marriage. God never seems to outright condemn polygamy in the Old Testament. David had several wives, and God even seems to condone this (2 Sam 12:8). However, having two or more wives never worked out well. The consequences in the Biblical narratives were almost always negative. So while some of this may be hard to understand, the practical message for a good life is clear, stick to one wife!