על צאצאי קין י״גOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 13
א׳
1[44] Having now distinguished between the things signified by Enoch’s name, we will pass on next to Methuselah. His name, as we saw, means “a sending forth of death,” and these words call up two pictures to the mind. In one of them death is being sent to fall upon somebody; in the other death is being dismissed from somebody. The man on whom it is sent to fall, dies without fail, while he from whom it is dismissed lives and survives.
ב׳
2[45] He who receives death is an intimate of Cain, who is ever dying to the way of life directed by virtue; to Seth he is close of kin from whom dying is dismissed and debarred; for the good man has reaped true life as his crop.
ג׳
3[46] “Low estate” again, which is the meaning of “Lamech,” has a twofold bearing. We are brought low either when the energies of the soul are let down owing to sicknesses and infirmities produced in us as the result of irrational passions, or when in our eager quest of virtue we check in ourselves the swelling of self-conceit.
ד׳
4[47] The former kind of being brought low is due to weakness, and is a species of leprosy, that changeful disease which assumes so many different forms. For when the uniform and healthy appearance of the flesh is impaired and the mischief is visible below the surface, the lawgiver says that the cruel disease of leprosy has set in (Lev. 13:3).
ה׳
5[48] The other form of being brought low results from the exercise of hardy strength, and this has for its sequel propitiation, determined by 10, the perfect number: for there is a command to bring low our souls on the tenth day of the month (Lev. 23:27), and this signifies to put away boasting, a putting away which leads to an imploring of pardon for sins voluntary and involuntary. So the Lamech lowly in this way is a descendant of Seth, and father of righteous Noah; but the Lamech brought low in the former way is sprung from Cain.