Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”
1. And Adam knew his wife Eve . Moses now begins to describe the propagation of mankind; in which history it is important to notice that this benediction of God, “Increase and multiply,” was not abolished by sin; and not only so, but that the heart of Adam was divinely confirmed so that he did not shrink with horror from the production of offspring.
Eve saw in Cain the promised seed and exulted, calling him the Lord or a man from the Lord, but she was wretchedly mistaken, much as Samuel later was. When children are born, who can foresee what they will become? Yet God did not leave our first parents childless; even in their sin and sorrow, He showed them other blessings were still in store.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 4:1-2
And Adam knew Eve his wife,.... An euphemism, or modest expression of the act of coition. Jarchi interprets it, "had known", even before he sinned, and was drove out of the garden; and so other Jewish writers, who think he otherwise would not have observed the command, "be fruitful and multiply": but if Adam had begotten children in a state of innocence, they would have...