Genesis 4:22

Tubal-cain. Although ‘Tubal” appears frequently as a personal name in the OT (Gen. 10:2; Isa. 66:19; Eze. 27:13; etc.), its meaning is obscure. The word “cain” may have been added later, perhaps to identify him as a Cainite.

An instructer of every artificer. The Hebrew word translated “instructer” in the KJV means literally “hammerer,” “whetter,” or “forger,” and refers to early work in bronze and iron, which was more a process of hammering than of smelting. Doubt has been expressed that iron was known as early as Genesis implies. However, recent discoveries made in Egypt and Mesopotamia have shown that iron objects were produced in the earliest historical periods of which we have record. The first iron objects were meteoric, their high percentage of nickel precluding terrestrial origin. Objects made of meteoric iron must have been produced by hammering rather than by smelting, again confirming the Biblical record. Though early man did not have bronze and iron in large quantities, there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the Bible statement that antediluvian man knew how to use these metals. Copper, bronze, and iron objects (ornaments, tools, weapons, vessels, etc.) from very early levels of civilization are being found in increasing numbers.

Naamah. Why Tubal-cain’s sister should be specifically mentioned is unknown. Jewish tradition made her Noah’s wife. Her name, meaning “the beautiful” or “the pleasant one,” reflects the worldly mind of the Cainites, who looked for beauty rather than for character as the chief attraction in women.