SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:22
Y Zila también dio a luz a Tubal-Caín, acicalador de toda obra de bronce y de hierro: y la hermana de Tubal-Caín fue Naama.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:22
Verse 22. Tubal-cain] The first smith on record, who taught how to make warlike instruments and domestic utensils out of brass and iron. Agricultural instruments must have been in use long before, for Cain was a tiller of the ground, and so was Adam, and they could not have cultivated the ground without spades, hooks, &c. Some of these arts were useless to man while innocent and upright, but after his fall they became necessary. Thus is the saying verified: God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. As the power to get wealth is from God, so also is the invention of useful arts. M. De Lavaur, in his Conference de la Fable avec l'Histoire Sainte, supposes that the Greeks and Romans took their smith- god Vulcan from Tubal-cain, the son of Lamech. The probability of this will appear, 1. From the name, which, by the omission of the Tu and turning the b into v, a change frequently made among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, makes Vulcain or Vulcan. 2. From his occupation he was an artificer, a master smith in brass and iron. 3. He thinks this farther probable from the names and sounds in this verse. The melting metals in the fire, and hammering them, bears a near resemblance to the hissing sound of hlx tsillah, the mother of Tubal-cain; and llx tsalal signifies to tinkle or make a sound like a bell, 1 Sam. iii. 11 2 Kings xxi. 12. 4. Vulcan is said to have been lame; M. Deuteronomy Lavaur thinks that this notion was taken from the noun alx tsela, which signifies a halting or lameness. 5. Vulcan had to wife Venus, the goddess of beauty; Naamah, the sister of Tubal- cain, he thinks, may have given rise to this part of the fable, as her name in Hebrew signifies beautiful or gracious. 6. Vulcan is reported to have been jealous of his wife, and to have forged nets in which he took Mars and her, and exposed them to the view of the whole celestial court: this idea he thinks was derived from the literal import of the name Tubal-cain; lbt tebel signifies an incestuous mixture of relatives, Lev. xx. 12; and anq kana, to burn with jealousy; from these and concomitant circumstances the case of the detected adultery of Mars and Venus might be easily deduced. He is of opinion that a tradition of this kind might have readily found its way from the Egyptians to the Greeks, as the former had frequent intercourse with the Hebrews.
Of Naamah nothing more is spoken in the Scriptures; but the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel makes her the inventress of funeral songs and lamentations. R. S. Jarchi says she was the wife of Noah, and quotes Bereshith Rabba in support of the opinion. Some of the Jewish doctors say her name is recorded in Scripture because she was an upright and chaste woman; but others affirm that the whole world wandered after her, and that of her evil spirits were born into the world. This latter opinion gives some countenance to that of M. Deuteronomy Lavaur.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 19-24 - One of Cain's wicked race is the first recorded, as having broken the law of marriage. Hitherto, one man had but one wife at a time; but Lamech took two. Wordly things, are the only things that carnal, wicke people set their hearts upon, and are most clever and industriou about. So it was with this race of Cain. Here was a father of shepherds, and a father of musicians, but not a father of the faithful Here is one to teach about brass and iron, but none to teach the goo knowledge of the Lord: here are devices how to be rich, and how to be mighty, and how to be merry; but nothing of God, of his fear an service. Present things fill the heads of most. Lamech had enemies whom he had provoked. He draws a comparison betwixt himself and his ancestor Cain; and flatters himself that he is much less criminal. He seems to abuse the patience of God in sparing Cain, into a encouragement to expect that he may sin unpunished.
Original Hebrew
וצלה 6741 גם 1571 הוא 1931 ילדה 3205 את 853 תובל קין 8423 לטשׁ 3913 כל 3605 חרשׁ 2794 נחשׁת 5178 וברזל 1270 ואחות 269 תובל קין 8423 נעמה׃ 5279
