Adah & Zillah: The Beginning of Oppression

Bible Verses: Genesis 4:19-24

Very little is known about Adah and Zillah. There are only a few Bible verses about them, and they tend to be overlooked, however they are the first women after Eve to be named in the Bible. The ancient biblical authors clearly thought they were important enough to include, but what can we learn from them? Adah and Zillah were the two wives of Lamech, who was descended from Eve’s son Cain. Cain had given in to the power of evil by murdering his twin brother out of jealousy, despite God warning him to not let sin rule over him. Because of this, Cain had to leave the presence of God and with each generation his descendants spiralled down into more sin, eventually coming to Lamech with the sixth generation. All in all, it’s a pretty miserable picture of the humanity that God had once declared ‘very good’.

Lamech was characterised as a new low point in the human story. He was arrogant, violent, and boasted of his cruelty in murdering those who had done him even the slightest harm. Instead of worshipping God, he sung of his brutality and terrible power. Lamech was an oppressive, aggressive force who gloried in injustice. And it is in this context that Adah and Zillah emerge, as the first example of polygamy in the Bible. No doubt they were just as fallen and sinful, but we don’t know enough details about their lives to be able to say. What we do know is that they were treated as property to be accumulated rather than humans and women to be valued. The Bible makes it clear that polygamy and the oppression of women are a result of sin and cause great pain and suffering that is against God’s good plan.

Names are significant in the Bible as they often have meanings in Hebrew. In the cases of Adah and Zillah this link appears to be more tenuous than in other cases, however it has been suggested that Adah may mean ‘ornament’ while Zillah may mean ‘shadow’. These meanings certainly fit with the way that the two women are presented. Being named an ‘ornament’ would suggest that Adah was treated as no more than a trophy wife rather than as her own person, whereas the name ‘shadow’ suggests that Zillah was hidden unseen in the dark and not allowed to fulfil her potential. The power-obsessed Lamech treated these two women as little more than status symbols and an audience for his boasting. It is a far cry from the loving, monogamous marriage that God had intended for Adam and Eve.

Why was this depressing story included in the Bible? The ancient biblical authors clearly wrote of Adah and Zillah for a reason, especially since the book of Genesis is about ‘beginnings’ and sets the scene for God’s plan in this world. I think its purpose is to show clearly from the outset that this is not what our God wants. Later stories in the Bible have many examples of oppression, violence, arrogance, polygamy, and the mistreatment of women. Even God’s people, who chose to follow Him, frequently fell short in the way they treated their womenfolk. God uses broken people, but He has a better plan for us all. And He knows all His daughters, every overlooked Adah and Zillah, by name.

So this story is a cautionary tale of how not to treat women, or any other oppressed group. It is a demonstration of how sin has multiplied from Eve’s curse of being ruled over by a bad husband to the systematic oppression of women in a patriarchal society. Sin hurts everyone, but it has been especially damaging to women – hence why war was initiated between Eve (women) and the serpent (forces of evil/sin).

Yet not all is bad. Even when fallen, human creativity continues. Adah and Zillah’s children became the first craftsmen and artists, specialising in different occupations. The number 7 in ancient Jewish culture signified completion or wholeness, and as these children were the 7^th generation from Adam and Eve, they showed a totality of the human project being launched into the world.

This human creativity is directly linked to the mothers, Adah and Zillah, who bore life to their children. Humanity may have got lost along the way, but they still had the inner urge to create and God could use that to build a better future. While the individual story itself is a human tragedy, there remains an element of hope to be found in the promise of a greater story. While it is Adah and Zillah who suffer most, it is from them that hope continues. Women are an important part of God’s plan.

Things had gone wrong along the way, but this was only the beginning and God would redeem His people.