#6. The land of Nod, the city of Enoch
(Gen. iv. 16, 17).
The first geographical reference of Holy Scripture deals with the site of the garden planted by the Lord, “eastward in Eden”. The second speaks of a city built by rebellious man, “on the east of Eden”.
“And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 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” (Gen. iv. 16, 17).
The curse pronounced upon Cain included the words: “A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.” “Vagabond” is the translation of the Hebrew word Nod, which gives its name to the land whither Cain went. The same word that is translated “Nod” in Gen. iv. 16 is translated “wanderings” in Psalms lvi. 8, where David, though taken by the Philistines to Gath—a spiritual “land of Nod”—rejoices in the fact that “God is for me”, a contrast indeed with the condition of Cain.
We have a similar instance of the meaning of a place from an experience of a visitor related in Gen. xxviii.19.
“And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
In this land of Nod the first city upon earth was built. The second city to be mentioned was built by the arch-rebel Nimrod, and its name was Nineveh, (Rehoboth may not be the name of a city, but the boulevard of the great city Nineveh: also “between Nineveh and Calah” may indicate one great city) (Gen. x. 10-12). The next city to be built was Babel (Gen. xi. 4, 5 and 8), and the fourth the wicked city named Sodom (Gen. xviii. 24).
This sinister history of city-building, recorded in the early pages of Genesis, finds its echo in the book of the Revelation, where Babylon is called “that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth”. Thus Enoch the city of Cain, the vagabond; Nineveh the city of Nimrod, the mighty rebel; Sodom, to which apostate Israel is likened (Isa. i. 10; Rev. xi. 8) and Babel, the city of final antichristian rebellion, are linked together.
Enoch comes from chanak, “to dedicate”. The word is chiefly used to indicate the dedication of offerings, houses or persons, to the Lord, and this leads us to suspect that Cain dedicated his child and his city to the Serpent, the Wicked One, whose child he was (I John iii. 12). In Dan. iii. 2, 3, the word is used of the dedication of an image by Nebuchadnezzar for idolatrous purposes. Closely associated with Cain’s city is the “civilization” introduced by his immediate descendants (Gen. iv. 20-22), an attempt to blunt the edge of the curse on the earth that Cain suffered. This is in severe contrast with the attitude of the great descendant of the other Enoch, “the seventh from Adam”, who refused to mitigate the
“work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed” (Gen. v. 29),
We have a similar instance of the meaning of a place from an experience of a visitor related in Gen. xxviii.19.
“And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
In this land of Nod the first city upon earth was built. The second city to be mentioned was built by the arch-rebel Nimrod, and its name was Nineveh, (Rehoboth may not be the name of a city, but the boulevard of the great city Nineveh: also “between Nineveh and Calah” may indicate one great city) (Gen. x. 10-12). The next city to be built was Babel (Gen. xi. 4, 5 and 8), and the fourth the wicked city named Sodom (Gen. xviii. 24).
This sinister history of city-building, recorded in the early pages of Genesis, finds its echo in the book of the Revelation, where Babylon is called “that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth”. Thus Enoch the city of Cain, the vagabond; Nineveh the city of Nimrod, the mighty rebel; Sodom, to which apostate Israel is likened (Isa. i. 10; Rev. xi. 8) and Babel, the city of final antichristian rebellion, are linked together.
Enoch comes from chanak, “to dedicate”. The word is chiefly used to indicate the dedication of offerings, houses or persons, to the Lord, and this leads us to suspect that Cain dedicated his child and his city to the Serpent, the Wicked One, whose child he was (I John iii. 12). In Dan. iii. 2, 3, the word is used of the dedication of an image by Nebuchadnezzar for idolatrous purposes. Closely associated with Cain’s city is the “civilization” introduced by his immediate descendants (Gen. iv. 20-22), an attempt to blunt the edge of the curse on the earth that Cain suffered. This is in severe contrast with the attitude of the great descendant of the other Enoch, “the seventh from Adam”, who refused to mitigate the
“work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed” (Gen. v. 29),
and looked forward to the fulfillment of the type which his son Noah, and Noah’s great work, foreshadowed.
Where Cain “builded a city”, Noah “builded an altar”, and both “buildings” are associated with the ground that was cursed (Gen. iv. 17; viii. 20, 21). So, later, we read that Nimrod, the rebel, builded Nineveh (Gen. x. 11) and the rebellious nations of the earth proposed to build a city and a tower (Gen. xi. 4); but Abraham, who obeyed, built an altar unto the Lord (Gen. xii. 7, 8).
Thus we have, in the first two geographical notices in Genesis, the site of the garden which the Lord planted, and the site of the city which Cain builded, which clearly symbolize the two antagonistic lines of doctrine that culminate in the destruction of Babylon and the restoration of Paradise foretold in the closing book of the New Testament.
[Bold verse - see Time and Place35, page 20 for error corrected]
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Time and Place
An error corrected, and a Berean spirit manifested.
In Volume xxxiv. page 179, we have the following statement:
"The rebellious nations of the earth proposed to build a city and a tower" (Gen. xi. 4.).
A valued reader has written, drawing our attention to the fact that "nations" as such did not then exist, as Genesis xi. 6 says:
"The people is one and have all one language." We readily acknowledge the slip of the pen in the use of the word "nations" in this article.
In Volume ix. page 107, we recognize the fact that while the division of the race into "nations" is recorded in Genesis x, that the confusion of Babel found in Genesis xi preceded this division.
"Although the division of the earth among the sons of Noah comes before the record of the building of the tower of Babel, the scattering that took place at the confusion of tongues was the cause of the division recorded i n Chapter x. There in Chapter x. 5, 20 and 31, the descendants of Japheth, Ham and Shem are divided according to their tongues. This therefore mu^t have come after the record of chapter xi, for there we read "The whole earth was of one language and one speech". (The Berean Expositor, vol. ix, page 107.)
Every reader, however, does not possess these early volumes and so we are grateful for the reminder. We rejoice too in the exhibition of a true Berean spirit that dares to "search and see", and for the words with which the correspondence closed.
" I know it is not a matter of vital importance; save that the reputation for exactitude so worthily established by the Berean Expositor must needs be maintained."
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(From The Berean Expositor vol. 35, page 24).
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"The rebellious nations of the earth proposed to build a city and a tower" (Gen. xi. 4.).
A valued reader has written, drawing our attention to the fact that "nations" as such did not then exist, as Genesis xi. 6 says:
"The people is one and have all one language." We readily acknowledge the slip of the pen in the use of the word "nations" in this article.
In Volume ix. page 107, we recognize the fact that while the division of the race into "nations" is recorded in Genesis x, that the confusion of Babel found in Genesis xi preceded this division.
"Although the division of the earth among the sons of Noah comes before the record of the building of the tower of Babel, the scattering that took place at the confusion of tongues was the cause of the division recorded i n Chapter x. There in Chapter x. 5, 20 and 31, the descendants of Japheth, Ham and Shem are divided according to their tongues. This therefore mu^t have come after the record of chapter xi, for there we read "The whole earth was of one language and one speech". (The Berean Expositor, vol. ix, page 107.)
Every reader, however, does not possess these early volumes and so we are grateful for the reminder. We rejoice too in the exhibition of a true Berean spirit that dares to "search and see", and for the words with which the correspondence closed.
" I know it is not a matter of vital importance; save that the reputation for exactitude so worthily established by the Berean Expositor must needs be maintained."
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(From The Berean Expositor vol. 35, page 24).
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