Clean Animals

In Gen 3, After Adam and Havah eat the forbidden fruit, Adonai makes a sacrifice and coveres them with skins.
Later in Gen 4, Kayin and Hevel offer sacrifices, Hevel's sheep offering is accepted
But in Gen 7, when Adonai is telling Noach which animals and how many to take in the ark, it's HERE that we first learn about Clean and Unclean animals. Now, it's not elaborated on, we don't know which animals are clean and which are unclean at this point, but I'm sure Noach knew which ones were considered clean.
Now isn't this interesting, seeing as at this particular point in time, Adonai has only given plants as food for Man, so clean and unclean clearly doesn't have anything to do with food at this point. Rather, I'm sure it has to do with offering sacrifices (I haven't gotten to this point in my writing yet, but I know it's there in a few verses.).

I also thought it was interesting that Adonai says that Noach is to take seven couples of the birds too. Let me find it for you

Genesis 7:3 also of the birds in the air take seven couples - in order to preserve their species throughout the earth.

Isn't that interesting. Take seven couples for clean animals, one couple for unclean animals, and seven couples for birds of the air. Wonder why?

The Story of Lemekh

Gen 4:19-24 Lemekh tool himself two wives; the name of the one was Adah, while the name of the other was Tzilah. Adah gave birth to Yaval; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and have cattle. His brother's name was Yuval; and he was the ancestor of all those who play lyre and flute. Tzilah gave birth to Tuval-Kayin, who forged all kinds of tools from brass and iron; the sister of Tuval-Kayin was Na'amah.

Lemekh said to his wives,

"Adah and Tzilah, listen to me;
wives of Lemekh, hear what I say:
I killed a man for wounding me,
a young man who injured me.
If Kayin will be avenged sevenfold,
then Lemekh seventy-sevenfold!"

Ok, for a little while now, I've heard some Christian women speak about poligamy, and how it's acceptable in the Bible. If Solomon was so wise, then clearly his 700 wives is justified, and it seems the scriptures never speak against poligamy - not directly at least.

But what kind of a man is this Lemekh, who is the first to take two wives? From this poetry, we can see he's a braggart. He's boasting to his wives that he's killed a man.. and for what did this young man suffer the consequence of death? For wounding him... for injuring him. This Lemekh fellow has a short fuse.

Trent's Tanakh has a commentary on this poetry. Lemekh was blind and his son Tubal-Kayin would lead him. One day, Tubal-Kayin saw Kayin and mistaking him for an animal, he bade his father to shoot an arrow which killed Kayin. When Lemekh realized he had killed Kayin, he beat his hands together in grief and accidentally killed his son. His wives were angry and refused to live with him. He tried to appease them: "if the punishment of Kayin, an intentional murder was delayed until the seventh generation, surely punishment will be deferred many times seven because I killed accidentally."

Well this tells a slightly different story than what I interpreted doesn't it. It seems we should have mercy for this fellow given this commentary. But his wives don't seem to be showing him mercy do they. It does seem that that sevenfold and seventy-sevenfold is much like that forgiveness that Yeshua was talking about in
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Kefa came up and said to him, "Rabbi, how often can my brother sin against me and I have to forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 "No, not seven times," answered Yeshua, "but seventy times seven! 23 Because of this, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared with a king who decided to settle accounts with his deputies. 24 Right away they brought forward a man who owed him many millions; 25 and since he couldn't pay, his master ordered that he, his wife, his children and all his possessions be sold to pay the debt. 26 But the servant fell down before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' 27 So out of pity for him, the master let him go and forgave the debt. 28 "But as that servant was leaving, he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him some tiny sum. He grabbed him and began to choke him, crying, `Pay back what you owe me!' 29 His fellow servant fell before him and begged, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' 30 But he refused; instead, he had him thrown in jail until he should repay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were extremely distressed; and they went and told their master every thing that had taken place. 32 Then the master summoned his servant and said, `You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt just because you begged me to do it. 33 Shouldn't you have had pity on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers for punishment until he paid back everything he owed. 35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat you, unless you each forgive your brother from your hearts."

I guess the commentary remarks are more accurate than my first thoughts about the poem. Yeshua tells of a man who begs for forgiveness.. we better forgive.. lest we have creditted to us all the consequences for our sins.

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Lemekh - lamed, mem, choff sofit - can't find the definition, but probably related to the word Talmudim - or Scholar.. but also might be related to malemed - ox-goad

Adah - ain dalet hey - is a verb meaning to pass on, advance, to pass by also run.

Tzilah - tzad lamed hey - could come from the root word tzad lamed which means shadow. (Hey, this is my name! - my Hebrew name is Tzilah)

Yaval - yod vet lamed - means watercourse, stream or irrigation It also means to conduct, bear along. Yaval in my dictionary is credited with being the father of pastoral life.

Yuval - spelled similar to Yaval - Yod vav vet lamed. The word is more closely defined as stream.

Tuval-Kayin qof yod nun - kayin can mean spear..worker in iron (we can't find the meaning of tav vav vet lamed - Tuval in his dictionary. I thought it might mean blood or dipped, but I'm not certain)

So, from the names, it looks to me as if the first wife Adah is OVER the second wife Tzilah, who is a shadow. I don't think I'd like to be someone else's shadow in the dwelling place with my husband.

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I've finished writing to Gen 6:17. I still don't have a better understanding of those N'filim, or the son's of God and the daughters of man. Maybe my next occasion to write out the Torah will bring some new insight into something deeper in the next portion.