In this land of Nod the first city upon earth was built.  The second city to be

mentioned was built by the arch-rebel Nimrod, and its name was Nineveh, (Rehoboth

may not be the name of a city, but the boulevard of the great city Nineveh: also "between

Nineveh and Calah" may indicate one great city) (Gen. 10: 10-12).  The next city to be

built was Babel (Gen. 11: 4, 5 and 8), and the fourth the wicked city named Sodom

(Gen. 18: 24).

This sinister history of city-building, recorded in the early pages of Genesis, finds its

echo in the book of the Revelation, where Babylon is called "that great city which

reigneth over the kings of the earth". Thus Enoch the city of Cain, the vagabond;

Nineveh the city of Nimrod, the mighty rebel; Sodom, to which apostate Israel is likened

(Isa. 1: 10; Rev. 11: 8) and Babel, the city of final antichristian rebellion, are linked

Enoch comes from chanak, "to dedicate". The word is chiefly used to indicate the

dedication of offerings, houses or persons, to the Lord, and this leads us to suspect that

Cain dedicated his child and his city to the Serpent, the Wicked One, whose child he was

(I John 3: 12).  In Dan. 3: 2, 3, the word is used of the dedication of an image by

Nebuchadnezzar for idolatrous purposes. Closely associated with Cain's city is the

"civilization" introduced by his immediate descendants (Gen. 4: 20-22), an attempt to

blunt the edge of the curse on the earth that Cain suffered. This is in severe contrast with

the attitude of the great descendant of the other Enoch, "the seventh from Adam", who

refused to mitigate the

and looked forward to the fulfillment of the type which his son Noah, and Noah's great

work, foreshadowed.

Where Cain "builded a city", Noah "builded an altar", and both "buildings" are

associated with the ground that was cursed (Gen. 4: 17; 8: 20, 21). So, later, we read

that Nimrod, the rebel, builded Nineveh (Gen. 10: 11) and the rebellious nations of the

earth proposed to build a city and a tower (Gen. 11: 4); but Abraham, who obeyed,

built an altar unto the Lord (Gen. 12: 7, 8).

Thus we have, in the first two geographical notices in Genesis, the site of the garden

which the Lord planted, and the site of the city which Cain builded, which clearly

symbolize the two antagonistic lines of doctrine that culminate in the destruction of

Babylon and the restoration of Paradise foretold in the closing book of the New

[Bold verse - see Time and Place35, page 20 for error corrected]