The Sons of Seth Go Down to the Daughters of Cain

Era: Primeval History
Date: Days of Jared ○ Traditional
Reference: The Cave of Treasures 19:1-16

In the Cave of Treasures the children of Seth live on the holy mountain beside Paradise and are called the sons of God, while Cain's descendants live on the plain below. Each dying patriarch makes them swear by the blood of Abel never to go down. In the five hundredth year of Jared the oath is broken. Jubal and Tubal-Cain make instruments of music, devils dwell inside them, and the noise of the revels in Cain's camp rises to the mountain.

About a hundred mighty men of Seth's line set out, ignoring the pleas of Jared and Enoch. They are taken by the daughters of Cain, and when they try to climb back the stones of the mountain turn to fire before them. Many others follow, until only Noah's household remains.

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Did You Know?

The book dates the breaking of the oath to the five hundredth year of the life of Jared, whom it calls Yared.

The first to go down were about one hundred of Seth's descendants, described as mighty men of war.

Enoch warned the men that anyone who broke the oath and left the mountain would never be able to climb it again.

When the fallen men tried to return, the stones of the holy mountain became fire in their sight and they could not ascend.

The writer denies that angels fathered the giants, saying they were the children of Seth's sons and Cain's daughters and were like towers.

Key Passage

The Sons of Seth Go Down to the Daughters of Cain

The Cave of Treasures 19:1-16

And Yaréd his son rose up and ministered before God [in the Cave of Treasures]. He was a perfect man, and was complete i...

A¹nd Yaréd his son rose up and ministered before God [in the Cave of Treasures]. He was a perfect man, and was complete in all the virtues, and he was constant in prayer by day and by night. And because of the excellence of his life and conversation, his days were longer than those of all the children of his people.

² And in the days of Yáréd, in the five hundredth year of his life, the children of Seth broke the oaths which their fathers had made them to swear. And they began to go down from that holy mountain to the encampment of iniquity of the children of Cain, the murderer, and in this way the fall of the children of Seth took place. ³ And in the fortieth year of Yared the first thousand years, from Adam to Yared, came to an end. And in these years the handicraftsmen of sin, and the disciples of Satan, appeared, for he was their teacher, and he entered in and dwelt in them, and he poured into them the spirit of the operation of error, through which the fall of the children of Seth was to take place. ⁴ Of the transmission of the art of playing the harp, that is to say, of music, and singing and dancing. Yobal (Jubal) and Tóbalkin (Tubal-Cain), the two brethren, the sons of Lamech, the blind man, who killed Cain, invented and made all kinds of instruments of music. Jóbal made reed instruments, and harps, and flutes, and whistles, and the devils went and dwelt inside them. ⁵ When men blew into the pipes, the devils sang inside them, and sent out sounds from inside them. Tóbalkin made cymbals, and sistra, and tambourines (or drums). And lasciviousness and fornication increased among the children of Cain, and they had nothing to occupy them except fornication—now they had no obligation [to pay] tribute, and they had neither prince nor governor—and eating, and drinking, and lasciviousness, and drunkenness, and dancing and singing to instruments of music, and the wanton sportings of the devils, and the laughter which affordeth pleasure to the devils, and the sounds of the furious lust of men neighing after women. ⁶ And Satan, finding [his] opportunity in this work of error, rejoiced greatly, because thereby he could compel the sons of Seth to come down from that holy mountain. There they had been made to occupy the place of that army [of angels] that fell [with Satan], there they were beloved by God, there they were held in honour by the angels, and were called “sons of God,” even as the blessed David saith in the psalm, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” ⁷ (Ps. Ixxxii. 6.) Meanwhile fornication reigned among the daughters of Cain, and without shame [several] women would run after one man. And one man would attack another, and they committed fornication in the presence of each other shamelessly. For all the devils were gathered together in that camp of Cain, and unclean spirits entered into the women, and took possession of them. ⁸ The old women were more lascivious than the maidens, fathers and sons defiled themselves with their mothers and sisters, sons respected not even their own fathers, and fathers made no distinction between their sons [and other men]. And Satan had been made ruler (or prince) of that camp. ⁹ And when the men and women were stirred up to lascivious frenzy by the devilish playing of the reeds which emitted musical sounds, and by the harps which the men played through the operation of the power of the devils, and by the sounds of the tambourines and of the sistra which were beaten and rattled through the agency of evil spirits, the sounds of their laughter were heard in the air above them, and ascended to that holy mountain. ¹⁰ And when the children of Seth heard the noise, and uproar, and shouts of laughter in the camp of the children of Cain, about one hundred of them who were mighty men of war gathered together, and set their faces to go down to the camp of the children of Cain. When Yârêd heard their words and knew their intention, he became sorely afflicted, and he sent and called them to him, and said unto them, “By the holy blood of Abel, I will have you swear that not one of you shall go down from this holy mountain. Remember ye the oaths which our fathers Seth, and Ánósh, and Kainan, and Mahlalail made you to swear.” ¹¹ And Enoch also said unto them, “Hearken, O ye children of Seth, no man who shall transgress the commandment of Yaréd, and [break] the oaths of our fathers, and go down from this mountain, shall never again ascend it.” But the children of Seth would neither hearken to the commandment of Yaréd, nor to the words of Enoch, and they dared to transgress the commandment, and those hundred men, who were mighty men of war, went down [to the camp of Cain]. ¹² And when they saw that the daughters of Cain were beautiful in form and that they were naked and unashamed, the children of Seth became inflamed with the fire of lust. And when the daughters of Cain saw the goodliness of the children of Seth, they gripped them like ravening beasts and defiled their bodies. ¹³ And the children of Seth slew their souls by fornication with the daughters of Cain. And when the children of Seth wished to go up [again] to that holy mountain, after they had come down and fallen, the stones of that holy mountain became fire in their sight, and having defiled their souls with the fire of fornication, God did not permit them to ascend to that holy place. ¹⁴ And, moreover, very many others made bold and went down after them, and they, too, fell. And when Yáréd had lived nine hundred and sixty years, and the day of his departure approached, and came nigh, and arrived, all the Patriarchs gathered themselves together and came unto him, viz. Enoch, his first-born, and Methuselah, and Lamech, and Noah, they and their wives and their children, and were blessed by him. ¹⁵ And he prayed over them, and said unto them, “I will make you to swear by the holy blood of Abel that ye will not go down from this holy mountain; for I know that God will not allow you to remain very much longer in this holy country. Inasmuch as ye have transgressed the commandment of your fathers, ye shall surely be cast out into that outer country, and ye shall no longer have your habitation on the skirts [of the mountain] of Paradise. And take ye good heed to this. Let him that is among you who shall go forth from that holy country take with him the body of our father Adam, and the offerings [of gold, frankincense, and myrrh] that are in the Cave of Treasures, and let him carry away and deposit the body in the place wherein he shall be commanded by God to set it down. And thou, my son Enoch, depart thou not from before the body of Adam, but minister before God purely and holily all the days of thy life.” ¹⁶ And Yaréd died, [being] nine hundred and sixty-two years old, on the thirteenth day of the month of Îyâr (May), on the day of the Eve of the Sabbath (Friday), at sunset, in the three hundred and sixty-sixth year of the life of Noah. And Enoch his son embalmed him, and buried him in the Cave of Treasures; and they made mourning for him forty days.

Read full chapter: The Cave of Treasures 19 →

Did You Know?

The book dates the breaking of the oath to the five hundredth year of the life of Jared, whom it calls Yared.

The first to go down were about one hundred of Seth's descendants, described as mighty men of war.

Enoch warned the men that anyone who broke the oath and left the mountain would never be able to climb it again.

When the fallen men tried to return, the stones of the holy mountain became fire in their sight and they could not ascend.

The writer denies that angels fathered the giants, saying they were the children of Seth's sons and Cain's daughters and were like towers.

The Sons of Seth Go Down to the Daughters of Cain

Did You Know?

Key Passage

The Sons of Seth Go Down to the Daughters of Cain

Did You Know?

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