Lamech’s two wives gave him four children. There were probably more, but only four of them are mentioned in the Bible. After we learn about Jabal, Jubal, Naamah, and Tubal-Cain, Genesis 4:23 tells us, “Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, ‘hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.’” There is a lot of attention paid to Lamech’s taking two wives. He does seem to be a slave to the lusts of the flesh. But there is more than just that. He is also a murderer like Cain. Then he brags about it to his two wives. I’ve always been suspicious of the connection between his lust for the 2nd wife and the murder afterward. I’ve suspected that they were connected. According to one website, the four main motives for murder are love, lust, loathing, and loot.[1] Love and lust deal with sex, and here we see Lamech trapped in what appears to be a love triangle. Was the “young man” that Lamech murdered a rival for one of his wives? Indeed, this is just speculation, but doesn’t it seem possible?
Another piece of speculation concerns how many men Lamech killed. It’s been suggested by many ancient commentators that there were two men. Basil, as far back as the 4th century A.D., “…interprets Lamech’s words to mean that he had committed two murders and deserved a much more severe punishment than Cain.”[2] The first man that Lamech killed might have been Cain. According to the early legend of Lamech, he had poor eyesight and accidentally shot an arrow at movement in the bushes, and it ended up being Cain. This tradition continued well into the 12th century, as we see in this photo. The second man Lamech killed, “The young man,” has been identified as Tubal Cain. This legend finds support from the book of Jashar. The book of Jashar is quoted in both Joshua and Samuel. It has been lost for centuries but then showed up again in the 18th Century, which is mainly considered a forgery. One writer says, “While I do not consider the book of Jashar an authoritative book, I do believe that it sheds more light to understanding reasons why some things happened in the Bible. Having read it twice, I don’t see anything contradictory to the Bible.”
Barker defends Lamech! He argues that Lamech’s killing was in self-defense. He writes, “Lamech appealed to the fact that he killed a man ‘for wounding’ and ‘for injuring’ him. He did not ‘hate his neighbor, lie in wait for him, rise up against him, and kill him’ (cf. Dt 19:11), as Cain had done, but rather based his appeal on a plea of self-defense.” Barker suggests we get a glimpse at the kind of society that Cain had built. He writes, “The point is not that Lamech’s sense of justice was correct or even exemplary, but that Cain’s city and descendants had a system of law and justice representative of an ordered society.”[3] This seems to miss the overall theme of the moral deterioration that leads to the flood. What cannot be missed and must not be ignored was the increased focus on sex and violence in a society destined for destruction. Can we learn anything from this?
[1] https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/09627250608553401.pdf
[2] Smith. 1882. “La′mech.” In Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, 5:209. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.
[3] Barker, Kenneth L., and John R. Kohlenberger III. 1994. Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition: Old Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.