4:1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; who conceived and brought forth Cain,
saying: I have gotten a man through God.
4:2. And again she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a
shepherd, and Cain a husbandman.
4:3. And it came to pass after many days, that Cain offered, of the
fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord.
4:4. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their
fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings.
Had respect.... That is, shewed his acceptance of his sacrifice (as
coming from a heart full of devotion): and that, as we may suppose, by
some visible token, such as sending fire from heaven upon his
offerings.
4:5. But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was
exceeding angry, and his countenance fell.
4:6. And the Lord said to him: Why art thou angry? and why is thy
countenance fallen?
4:7. If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin
forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under
thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.
4:8. And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go forth abroad. And
when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and
slew him.
4:9. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy brother Abel? And he
answered: I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?
4:10. And he said to him: What hast thou done? the voice of thy
brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth.
4:11. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath
opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand.
4:12. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a
fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.
4:13. And Cain said to the Lord: My iniquity is greater than that I may
deserve pardon.
4:14. Behold thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth,
and from thy face I shall be hid, and I shall be a vagabond and a
fugitive on the earth: every one, therefore, that findeth me, shall kill
me.
Every one that findeth me shall kill me.... His guilty conscience made
him fear his own brothers and nephews; of whom, by this time, there
might be a good number upon the earth; which had now endured near 130
years; as may be gathered from Gen. 5.3, compared with chap. 4.25,
though in the compendious account given in the scriptures, only Cain
and Abel are mentioned.
4:15. And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not so be: but whosoever
shall kill Cain, shall be punished sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark
upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him.
Set a mark, etc.... The more common opinion of the interpreters of holy
writ supposes this mark to have been a trembling of the body; or a
horror and consternation in his countenance.
4:16. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a
fugitive on the earth at the east side of Eden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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