1And the human had known Eve, his T: woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain and said, “I’ve created a man with YHWH.”
4:1. I’ve created a man with YHWH. Hebrew q
nîtî: one of the meanings of this word is “to create.” It comes to explain the name Cain (Hebrew qayin); but Eve would not claim to have created a man herself, and so she says that she has created him together with God. Thus giving birth, the human act that imitates the divine more than anything else, is regarded here as being done by humans and God together.
And note: the first person to pronounce the name of God in the Bible is the woman. Adam, Cain, Abel, and Seth are never quoted as saying the name.
2And she went on to give birth to his brother, Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of flocks, and Cain was a worker of ground.
3And it was at the end of some days, and Cain brought an offering to YHWH from the fruit of the ground.
4And Abel brought, as well, from the firstborn of his flock and their fat. And YHWH paid attention to Abel and his offering
5and did not pay attention to Cain and his offering. And Cain was very upset, and his face was fallen.
6And YHWH said to Cain, “Why are you upset, and why has your face fallen?”
7Is it not that if you do well you’ll be raised, and if you don’t do well then sin crouches at the threshold? And its desire will be for you. And you’ll dominate it.”
8And Cain said to his brother Abel. And it was while they were in the field, and Cain rose against Abel his brother and killed him.
4:8. Cain said to his brother Abel. What did he say? The second half of the sentence seems to be missing. The Samaritan, Greek (Septuagint), and Latin (Vulgate) texts read: “And Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’” Cain’s words appear to have been skipped in the Masoretic Text by a scribe whose eye jumped from the first phrase containing the word “field” to the second.
The Masoretic Text (MT) is known from medieval Hebrew manuscripts (from the tenth century C.E. on), which were copied from manuscripts going back to the late centuries B.C.E. and early centuries C.E. The Greek text of the Torah, the Septuagint (LXX), is known from manuscripts of the fourth-fifth centuries C.E., which were copied from manuscripts of a translation of a Hebrew text going back to the same period as the sources of the Masoretic Text. In order to try to determine the original text of the Torah, we must read both the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint text, as well as the Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) texts, which are the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Tanak. Sometimes the Targum (Aramaic), Samaritan, and Vulgate (Latin) are helpful as well.
4:8. it was while they were in the field. What is the significance of informing us that they are in a field at the time? Early biblical commentators searched for the meaning of this seemingly inconsequential detail. But to understand it we must observe, first, that fratricide recurs repeatedly in the Tanak. It begins here with Cain and Abel and ends with King Solomon executing his brother Adonijah; and in between these the issue of fratricide comes up in the stories of Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Abimelek killing seventy of his brothers (Judges 9), the war between Benjamin and its fellow tribes of Israel (Judges 20), the struggle between Israel and Judah (2 Sam 2:26–27), and King David’s sons Absalom and Amnon (2 Samuel 13–14). Next, we must observe that the word “field” repeatedly occurs in these stories. Thus: Absalom has his brother Amnon killed. In an attempt to get David to pardon Absalom for this murder, a woman (the “wise woman of Tekoa”) comes and tells David a fake story about her own two sons, claiming that one of them killed the other. In the course of her tale, she mentions a seemingly unrelated detail: they fought “in the field” (2 Sam 14:6). The same “inconsequential” detail that occurs in the Cain-Abel story occurs there. Likewise in the story of the rivalrous brothers Jacob and Esau, Esau comes to Jacob “from the field” (Gen 25:29). Indeed, Esau is introduced as “a man of the field” (25:27). And Joseph begins his report of his dream that offends his brothers with the words “here we were binding sheaves in the field” (Gen 37:7), which prompts his brothers to propose fratricide a few verses later (37:19–20). The story of the war between Benjamin and the rest of the Israelite tribes is also presented in terms of brothers killing brothers (Judg 20:13,23,28; 21:6); and there, too, the word “field” comes up twice. The recurring word, therefore, appears to be a means of connecting the many instances of brother killing brother. It recognizes that sibling rivalry is felt by nearly all humans, and it warns us to be sensitive to keep our hostile feelings in check—and to be sensitive to our siblings’ feelings as well. This will be developed through this chain of sibling stories in Genesis, culminating in Joseph, who offends his brothers in his youth (Gen 37:2–11) but who learns to show them understanding and kindness in his mature years (50:15–21).
4:8. Cain rose against Abel his brother. It never tells why, exactly, he kills him. Many suggestions have been made. But it is significant that the text never tells what the reason is. It implies, of course, that it is his anger over God’s favoring Abel’s sacrifice, but it never says this explicitly. Sometimes a silence in the Torah is revealing. In this case it suggests that the concern is not Cain’s immediate motive, but rather the deeper, essential fact of sibling rivalry. Everyone with children learns that it is not the specific content of their fights that matters so much as the fact of the fight. The issue is the existence of the sibling. As the first humans to have a sibling, Cain and Abel are the archetypes for sibling rivalry. The whole world was Cain’s until Abel came along.
9And YHWH said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
And he said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s watchman?”
4:9. Am I my brother’s watchman? It is hard to give up the famous English translation, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” but I think it is important to convey the continuing play on forms of the word for “watch” (Hebrew šmr). Humans had been put in the garden “to watch over it” (2:15), but in the end the cherubs are put there “to watch over” the way to the tree of life (3:24). Now the first human to murder another questions cynically his responsibility to watch out for his brother. The development of this term climaxes when God declares that the promises to Abraham will be upheld, including that “all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my watch” (26:4–5). This phrase (which in the Hebrew uses the root šmr twice, emphasizing it by using it in the verb and in its object) thereafter becomes a standard expression in the Torah for conveying loyalty to God.
10And He said, “What have you done? The sound! Your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground!
4:10. What have you done? These are the same words that God had said to Cain’s mother in the preceding story (3:13). By opening with a question (even if one already knows the answer!) one gives a person a chance to tell the truth and admit to a wrongdoing.
4:10. The sound! Your brother’s blood is crying. Older translations make this “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying,” but that is wrong. The word for “voice” or “sound” is singular. The word for blood is plural and must therefore be the subject of the plural verb “crying.” The word “sound” must be understood as an interjection.
11And now you’re cursed from the ground that opened its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand.
4:11. you’re cursed from the ground. Central again is the idea that the environment becomes hostile to humans as a result of human corruption, an idea to which our own age is becoming acutely sensitive. YHWH had said to Cain’s father, “The ground is cursed on your account” (3:17). Whereas formerly the man had been able to feed freely from the fruits of the garden, hereafter he would have to work to get the earth’s bounty, and it would produce thorns for him to cope with. Now Cain takes his brother Abel’s life, and YHWH says to Cain, one step beyond what he had said to Cain’s father, “You’re cursed from the ground.... When you work the ground it will no longer give its bounty to you” (4:11–12). (In the first case the curse is on the ground; in this second case the curse is on the man.) The theme of alienation from the earth and its vegetation, reiterated in this story, continues and reaches a high point in the flood story.
12When you work the ground it won’t continue to give its potency to you. You’ll be a roamer and rover in the earth.”
13And Cain said to YHWH, “My crime is greater than I can bear.
14Here, you’ve expelled me from the face of the ground today and I’ll be hidden from your presence, and I’ll be a roamer and rover in the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”
15And YHWH said to him, “Therefore: anyone who kills Cain, he’ll be avenged sevenfold.” And YHWH set a sign for Cain so that anyone who finds him would not strike him.
16And Cain went out from YHWH’s presence and lived in the land of roving, east of Eden.
17And Cain knew his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. And he was a builder of a city, and he called the name of the city like the name of his son: Enoch.
4:17. Cain knew his wife. Where did she come from?! See the comment on Gen 5:4.
18And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad fathered Mehuya-el, and Mehuya-el fathered Metusha-el, and Me-tusha-el fathered Lamech.
19And Lamech took two wives. The one’s name was Adah, and the second’s name was Zillah.
20And Adah gave birth to Yabal. He was father of tent-dweller and cattleman.
21And his brother’s name was Yubal. He was father of every player of lyre and pipe.
22And Zillah, too, gave birth to Tubal-Cain, forger of every implement of bronze and iron. And Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
23And Lamech said to his wives:
Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice,
Wives of Lamech, hear what I say.
For I’ve killed a man for a wound to me
And a boy for a hurt to me,
24For Cain will be avenged sevenfold
And Lamech seventy-seven.
25And Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and she called his name Seth “because God put another seed for me in place of Abel because Cain killed him.”
26And a son was born to Seth, him as well, and he called his name Enosh. Then it was begun to invoke the name YHWH.
