This source sheet is part of the larger Ta’amei HaPardes Commentary, a project of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. This is sheet 12 of 16 on the topic of TORAH.
(יז) וַיֵּ֤דַע קַ֙יִן֙ אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־חֲנ֑וֹךְ וַֽיְהִי֙ בֹּ֣נֶה עִ֔יר וַיִּקְרָא֙ שֵׁ֣ם הָעִ֔יר כְּשֵׁ֖ם בְּנ֥וֹ חֲנֽוֹךְ׃
(17) Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch.
Cain knew his wife, וַיֵּ֤דַע קַ֙יִן֙ אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ
In a rare positive echo of his parents’ experiences, Cain ends his story on a note of resilience. Just as the text tells us that Adam “knew” his wife after his expulsion from Eden, Cain now “knows” his wife. In both cases, “knowledge” refers to the sexual intercourse that will lead directly to the creation of new life. For both Adam and Cain, despite the depths to which they have descended, life begins anew. In the current context, even as Cain continues to evade God’s wishes for him, a fresh path is possible. (Intertextuality, Euphemism, Symbolism)
she conceived and bore Enoch, וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־חֲנ֑וֹךְ
In parallel to his own birth story, Cain’s son, Enoch, enters the world already named. Perhaps, as we have seen with Cain (see my comments on Gen. 4:1), such pre-naming hints at strong parental influences that are imbued in the child, even before the child emerges into the world.
Support for Cain’s profound influence on Enoch may be deduced from the evocative name he is given: Hanokh, which means “educated.” Perhaps, as Cain’s firstborn, Enoch is his father’s most natural student, the most direct recipient of his worldview (for a similar reading of Hanokh’s name, see Ha’amek Davar. (Intertextuality, Convention, Wordplay)
Further suggestions of Cain’s impact on his son’s life may be detected in the verse’s next words:
he built a city and he called the name of the city in the name of his son Enoch, וַֽיְהִי֙ בֹּ֣נֶה עִ֔יר וַיִּקְרָא֙ שֵׁ֣ם הָעִ֔יר כְּשֵׁ֖ם בְּנ֥וֹ חֲנֽוֹך
The verse is unclear as to who built the city: Cain or his son. As is often the case, we would do well to embrace the text’s ambiguity rather than to resolve it one way or another. Perhaps the text’s ambiguous language hints at Cain’s clever resolution of the conundrum with which he is faced. On the one hand, God wishes him to wander the earth. On the other hand, Cain seeks to continue his path of defiance and to establish roots in one place. In the opening words of this verse, with the text’s conflation of father and son, it seems that Cain has settled on a clever resolution. He will be the prime mover and the main beneficiary of the building effort. But technically, the city will belong to Hanokh; it will bear his name and he will be the builder of record.
Read this way, Cain demonstrates a remarkable stubbornness in avoiding a true reckoning. Time after time, the man who was born with great creative potential (see my comments to Gen. 4:1), the man who was afforded numerous chances for a new beginning, now appears to invest the bulk of his creative efforts in escaping – from an honest accounting within himself and with God. (Syntax, Ambiguity, Character Analysis)