Person
Yaval יָבָל
"father of those who dwell in tents with herds"
"And Adah bore Yaval—he was the father of those who dwell in tents with herds" (Bereshit 4:20).
"Father" here means not a parent but an originator: with him, in the Torah's telling, a whole way of life began. The three brothers and the sister are all named in this way—each as the beginning of his craft. It is the earliest place in the Torah where people are described by what they set going in the world.
The Torah gives no years.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereshit 4:17–24 — the line of Cain: seven generations and Lemech's four children
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereshit Rabbah 23 — the exposition of the verses on the house of Lemech: on Adah and Zillah, on Naamah, and on the crafts of Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.