He wasn't just wandering aimlessly, marked by God. According to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, Cain was acutely aware of the divine decree that his blood-guiltiness would come back to haunt him in the seventh generation.
So, what did he do? He tried to build a legacy, literally. He became a city-builder, naming the first city Enoch, after his son. It was with Enoch's birth that Cain finally felt a glimmer of peace. But don't think this was some act of repentance. Ginzberg emphasizes that the city-building was a "godless deed," a way to control his family, trapping them within walled cities.
It wasn't just the city-building. The Legends of the Jews paints a picture of Cain as a man who embraced wickedness. He amassed wealth through violence and encouraged others to do the same. He even gets the dubious credit for inventing weights and measures, transforming a simple world into one of "cunning craftiness." As we find in Midrash Rabbah, he was no role model.
What about that seventh generation curse? It catches up with him in a truly bizarre way, involving his great-grandson Lamech. Lamech, you see, was blind. He relied on his young son to guide him while hunting. One day, the boy spots something horned in the distance, mistaking it for an animal. Lamech shoots, and… well, it's not an animal. It's Cain himself, still bearing the mark God gave him.
Can you imagine the horror? Lamech, realizing he's killed his ancestor, strikes his hands together in despair, accidentally killing his own son in the process! Misfortune piles upon misfortune as, according to the legend, the earth opens up and swallows four generations of Cain's line: Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, and Methushael.
Talk about a bad day.
Left alone, Lamech's wives eventually find him and, horrified by his actions and the looming curse, want nothing to do with him. Lamech pleads his case, arguing that if Cain, who committed murder intentionally, was only punished in the seventh generation, then he, who killed unintentionally, should be spared for seventy-seven generations. According to the legend, Lamech and his wives then sought out Adam himself who, after hearing both sides, ruled in Lamech's favor.
The story doesn't end there, though. The narrative then shifts to the corruption of Lamech's time, particularly the practice of taking two wives – one for procreation, the other for pleasure, rendered sterile. The men showered attention on the barren wives, while the others lived lives of sorrow.
Lamech's wives, Adah and Zillah, each bore him two children. Adah had Jabal and Jubal. Zillah had Tubal-cain and Naamah.
Jabal is credited with building temples to idols, and Jubal with inventing the music played within them. Tubal-cain, whose name sounds similar to Cain for a reason, is portrayed as completing Cain's wicked work. While Cain committed murder, Tubal-cain, being the first to work with iron and copper, forged the weapons used in war, instruments of death. And Naamah, "the lovely," used her cymbals to summon worshippers to idols.
So, what do we take away from this wild ride through the generations of Cain? It's a cautionary tale, isn't it? A reminder that actions, both intentional and unintentional, have consequences. And perhaps, a meditation on how easily a legacy can be twisted, how quickly innovation can become destruction.
Cain knew only too well that his blood-guiltiness would be visited upon him in the seventh generation. Thus had God decreed against him. He endeavored, therefore, to immortalize his name by means of monuments, and he became a builder of cities. The first of them he called Enoch, after his son, because it was at the birth of Enoch that he began to enjoy a measure of rest and peace. Besides, he founded six other cities. This building of cities was a godless deed, for he surrounded them with a wall, forcing his family to remain within. All his other doings were equally impious. The punishment God had ordained for him did not effect any improvement. He sinned in order to secure his own pleasure, though his neighbors suffered injury thereby. He augmented his household substance by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintances to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and he became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced a change in the ways of simplicity wherein men had lived before, and he was the author of measures and weights. And whereas men lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness. Like unto Cain were all his descendants, impious and godless, wherefore God resolved to destroy them. The end of Cain overtook him in the seventh generation of men, and it was inflicted upon him by the hand of his great-grandson Lamech. This Lamech was blind, and when he went a-hunting, he was led by his young son, who would apprise his father when game came in sight, and Lamech would then shoot at it with his bow and arrow. Once upon a time he and his son went on the chase, and the lad discerned something horned in the distance. He naturally took it to be a beast of one kind or another, and he told the blind Lamech to let his arrow fly. The aim was good, and the quarry dropped to the ground. When they came close to the victim, the lad exclaimed: "Father, thou hast killed something that resembles a human being in all respects, except it carries a horn on its forehead!" Lamech knew at once what had happened—he had killed his ancestor Cain, who had been marked by God with a horn. In despair he smote his hands together, inadvertently killing his son as he clasped them. Misfortune still followed upon misfortune. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the four generations sprung from Cain—Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, and Methushael. Lamech, sightless as he was, could not go home; he had to remain by the side of Cain's corpse and his son's. Toward evening, his wives, seeking him, found him there. When they heard what he had done, they wanted to separate from him, all the more as they knew that whoever was descended from Cain was doomed to annihilation. But Lamech argued, "If Cain, who committed murder of malice aforethought, was punished only in the seventh generation, then I, who had no intention of killing a human being, may hope that retribution will be averted for seventy and seven generations." With his wives, Lamech repaired to Adam, who heard both parties, and decided the case in favor of Lamech. The corruptness of the times, and especially the depravity of Cain's stock, appears in the fact that Lamech, as well as all the men in the generation of the deluge, married two wives, one with the purpose of rearing children, the other in order to pursue carnal indulgences, for which reason the latter was rendered sterile by artificial means. As the men of the time were intent upon pleasure rather than desirous of doing their duty to the human race, they gave all their love and attention to the barren women, while their other wives spent their days like widows, joyless and in gloom. The two wives of Lamech, Adah and Zillah, bore him each two children, Adah two sons, Jabal and Jubal, and Zillah a son, Tubal-cain, and a daughter, Naamah. Jabal was the first among men to erect temples to idols, and Jubal invented the music sung and played therein. Tubal-cain was rightly named, for he completed the work of his ancestor Cain. Cain committed murder, and Tubal-cain, the first who knew how to sharpen iron and copper, furnished the instruments used in wars and combats. Naamah, "the lovely," earned her name from the sweet sounds which she drew from her cymbals when she called the worshippers to pay homage to idols.
