called
his name Enosh._

299. The verb _yikra_, he called, is in the masculine gender, by which
you are to understand that it was the father who gave this name to his
son. In the former case the verb was feminine, because Eve gave to her
son Seth his name. The expression in each case is different, which
difference of gender in a verb the Latin language does not indicate.

Enosh signifies a man afflicted or full of calamity. "What is man that
thou art mindful of him," Ps 8, 4. Seth, accordingly, intimates that
at that time there was some persecution or affliction of the Church.
That "old serpent," who had cast man out of paradise and had killed
Abel, the man beloved of God, was neither asleep nor idle. Therefore,
upon the consolation enjoyed in the birth of Seth there soon follows
another trial or tribulation, which the godly parents Adam and Eve
signalize by giving the name Enosh to their son. The names thus given
are by no means to be considered accidental. They were either
prophetical or commemorative of some particular event.

V. 26b. _Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah._

300. The rabbins understand this as having reference to idolatry. They
think that about this time the name of Jehovah began to be given to
creatures: to the sun, the moon, etc. But Moses is not here speaking
of what the generation of Cainites did, but what the godly generation
of Adam did. The sacred historian is testifying that after the birth
of Enosh there began the true worship of God, the calling upon the
name of Jehovah.

301. Here Moses most beautifully defines what it is to worship God, to
call upon the name of Jehovah; which is, as it were, the work of the
first table and concerns the true worship of God. Now, calling upon
the name of Jehovah embraces the preaching of the Word, faith, or
confidence in God, confession, etc. Paul beautifully joins these
things together in the fourteenth verse of the tenth chapter of his
Epistle to the Romans. True, the works of the second table also belong
to the worship of God, but these works do not refer directly and only
to God as do the works of the first table.

302. After the confusion made in the house of Adam by Cain, the
generation of the godly began to multiply by degrees and a little
Church was formed, in which Adam as the high priest governed all
things by the Word and by sound doctrine. Moses here affirms that this
took place about the time of the birth of Enosh. Although t