Bible Strands
Genesis 4:17
And Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Cain’s actions after he depures from God’s presence and settles in the land of Nod, detailing the birth of his first son and his subsequent urban foundation.
The words — וַ/יֵּ֤דַע (va/i.Ye.da') = and/ he knew [H3045] denotes marital intimacy, and חֲנ֑וֹךְ (cha.Nokh) = Enoch [H2585] identifies the child after whom Cain names the city.
The thread — This account continues the narrative of Cain’s post-exile life in Genesis 4:16 and immediately introduces his lineage in Genesis 4:18.
Why it lands — The text records Cain’s establishment of a human legacy independent of divine judgment, requiring the reader to observe how his actions contrast with the earlier divine commands and his own exile.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Cross-references
- Psalms 49:11 Their graves are their eternal homes—their dwellings for endless generations—even though their lands were their namesakes.
- Ecclesiastes 2:4 I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.
- Daniel 4:30 the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”
- Genesis 5:18 When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch.
- Genesis 5:22 And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
- Genesis 11:4 “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
- 2 Samuel 18:18 During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
- Luke 17:28 It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.