Who Did Cain Marry? [Genesis 4]

¹⁶Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

Not long ago, I began reading the daily Bible readings to my Mother each morning. This morning, she asked a question concerning Cain and who could he have married? The only answer that the Bible supports is that he married someone in his family, perhaps a sister or a cousin. I suspect the bloodlines at that point were fairly pure and marrying close relatives didn't pose the danger that they do now thousands of years and many mutations of genes later. Also, people lived many more years in Cain's era. It wasn't until Genesis 6:3 that God shortened man's life span from nearly 1000 years to 120 years. That gave one couple hundreds of years to bear lots of children. Apparently, during their long lives, Adam and Eve did what God commanded them to do, "be fruitful and multiply." They quickly began to populate the earth with their children who married and bore many more children who did the same until Noah's time when God started all over with Noah's family.

Today's verse about Cain, reminds me of God's great love, compassion and mercy. Cain's arrogance, envy, murder of his brother and lack of repentance deserved God's wrath and justice. However, God once again demonstrated great restraint and mercy to Cain in how He confronted him and the consequences He gave to him.

We praise you, God, that from the very beginning you demonstrated great love, compassion and mercy for people, Your crowning creation who chose not to obey you over an over again. Your long suffering doesn't mean You are weak or unaware of the evil done every day. It just means that You are giving us every chance possible to turn to You and be protected and saved by You our Maker.

Beth Warlick, 2/26/2010

Feedback:

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		Byrna Armstrong	01/08/2011 21:20
Dear Beth: Thank you for your Biblical response to this question of who Cain married. It has helped me understand the Scripture more deeply. Praise the LORD for His grace to all His people. Thank GOD for His patience to us all. GOD'S Grace Byrna Armstrong 1/8/2011

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