What’s in a Genealogy?

Genesis 4 introduces us to Genealogies: a list of names of generations. In English, they are merely names, but the Torah hides meaning inside words. Perhaps God is not giving us names to forget, but parables to understand.

What I’m going to share next is only conjecture.

This is the list: Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methushael, Lamech, Adah, Zillah, Jabel, Jubal, Tubal-Cain, Na’amah.

Each name is a Hebrew word that carries multiple meanings. If you translate each, you can end up with nonsense, but you can also end up with a message of hope.

If I follow the meaning as below, I get this message:

Our ACQUISITIONS and works TEACH us that we’ll WANDER and be STRUCK DOWN. But there’s hope: LIFE. If we SEEK GOD, there is STRENGTH, BEAUTY & PROTECTION, and a FLOW of MUSIC AND JOY.

CAIN’S OFFSPRING can find GRACE.

Again, this is conjecture. I have no idea if this is the intended message, or if I’m merely seeing hope everywhere in the text.

But shouldn’t we? Isn’t that the point? Shouldn’t we hear the echo of the God of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 ringing loudly and clearly throughout the text?