Men in the Bible: Lamech – The First Polygamist and Second Murderer
Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah… Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me. – Genesis 4:19,23
Today, our spotlight shall be on the man, Lamech, who earned the appellation of being the first polygamist in recorded history as well as the second man to commit a murder after Cain.
Lamech was the great, great, great grandson of Cain, as he was in the fifth line of the genealogy, being sired by Methushael, the son of Mehujael, the son of Irad, the son of Enoch; the son of Cain.
However, the first thing of note that was recorded for Lamech was that he married two wives. That was a first of its kind as his forbears before him and contemporaries around him seemed to have been content with just one wife. But, in his own case, he entered the record as the first polygamist.
Also, Lamech became renowned for the wrong reason by killing someone in annoyance, Some temper he must have had to have reacted with murderous violence which resulted in him killing someone, a young man, who had injured him.
The Bible does not tell us much about the identity of the man that Lamech killed, apart from the fact that he was young, obviously younger and weaker than Lamech himself, and that the young man first hurt Lamech before he met with his fate.
We also do not know if the young man in question hurt Lamech deliberately. However, from Lamech’s own account, he revealed himself as a bully and a hot-tempered man whose reaction to being hurt by a weaker one was to kill the person in anger. That is not a good act to follow.
Apart from the fact that Lamech was hot-tempered, his confession also revealed that self-control was not one of his strengths. This accounted for his murderous instinct, as he could not restrain himself from lashing back. That was also not a desirable example to set for anyone.
This tells us that Lamech inherited the temperament of his great, great, great grandfather, Cain, and shared the same attributes with him.
Selah!
Also read:
- Men in the Bible: The Profile of A Fratricide (1)
- The Ordinance of Firstborn (3): Some Cases of the Firstborn Curse (Cont’d)
- The Sweet Old Fisherman
- When Reality Changes: Holding On to the One Constant
- What Do I Do?
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