The Reign of Sin[a]
Chapter 4
Hostility toward One’s Neighbor.[b] 1 Adam was intimate with Eve his wife and she conceived and bore a son named Cain. She said, “I have obtained a son from the Lord.” 2 Next she bore another child named Abel. Abel was a shepherd of flocks and Cain tilled the soil.
3 Some time later Cain offered the fruit of the earth as a sacrifice to the Lord, 4 and Abel offered the firstborn of his flock and their fat offerings. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, 5 but he was not pleased with Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.
6 The Lord therefore said to Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be able to hold up your head? But if you do what is wrong, sin is crouching at your door. It seeks to dominate you, but you can overcome it.”
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out into the fields.” While they were walking in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord asked Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He answered, “I do not know. Am I to be my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord told him, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil. 11 Now may you be cursed far from the soil that drank the blood of your brother that you have shed. 12 When you till the soil, it shall not be fruitful for you. You shall be a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth.”
13 Cain told the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! 14 Behold, you are banishing me from the soil this day. I will have to hide far from you. I will be a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth, and whoever meets me will be able to kill me.” 15 But the Lord told him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” The Lord placed a mark[c] upon Cain, so that no one who might meet him would strike him.
16 Descendants of the Murderer.[d] Cain left the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod,[e] which lies to the east of Eden.
17 Cain was intimate with his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. He became the founder of a city, which he named after his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad. Irad was the father of Mehujael. Mehujael was the father of Methusael. Methusael was the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech had two wives: one named Adah and the other named Zillah. 20 [f]Adah bore Jabal, who was the forefather of those who live in tents and herd cattle. 21 His brother was named Jubal. He was the forefather of those who play the lyre and the flute. 22 Zillah bore Tubalcain, the forger, and forefather of those who forge things made of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice;
wives of Lamech, lend an ear to what I say.
I have killed a man for wounding me
and a boy, for bruising me.
24 If Cain received a vengeance of sevenfold,
Lamech will receive one of seventy-sevenfold.”
25 First Stages of the History of Salvation.[g] Adam was once again intimate with his wife, and she bore a son who was named Seth.[h] She said, “God has granted me another child to take the place of Abel whom Cain killed.”
26 Seth also had a son who was named Enosh. It was at this time that people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Genesis 4:1 The story of Cain and Abel, in which agriculture and shepherding are already developed practices, may be an episode from the Neolithic Age, when the human race was already widespread. It is not impossible that Cain was the founder of the Kenites, a tribe allied with the Hebrews (Jdg 1:16; etc.). The Yahwist author would have chosen this known and important incident and moved it back to the time of the early ancestors in order to stress the point that there is a direct passage from breaking with God to breaking with the neighbor.
Thus sin multiplies and gradually becomes a power that tends to overwhelm the human race. But history will always be governed by two distinct forces: God and human beings, and God does not allow the wicked to gain exclusive control of the world. - Genesis 4:1 Chapter 4 is also from the Yahwist source. Sin kills not only the sinner but the innocent.
- Genesis 4:15 The mark is not a sign of disgrace but a sign of belonging to a clan and of the protection this ensures.
- Genesis 4:16 A very ancient tribal document. The tribe of Cain is connected with the origin of an inhabited area and with the legendary first practitioners of three trades associated with nomads. Moreover, Lamech, their father, is supposed to have begun the practice of polygamy and to have been noted for his savage and unbridled vendettas. In the eyes of the sacred writer, the passage shows that the progress of civilization cannot prevent a frightening moral regression.
- Genesis 4:16 Land of Nod or region of foreigners; Nôd, nad, is the fugitive and foreigner. Its geographical location has not been determined.
- Genesis 4:20 Shepherds, musicians, and smiths, three types of nomads, are traced back to three ancestors whose names point to their trades: Jabal (ybl, to lead), Jubal (yôbel, trumpet), and Tubalcain. (The Tubal were a people of the north, the land of metals, Gen 10:2; in other Semitic languages kain is a “smith”).
- Genesis 4:25 God responds to human sin by seeing to it that life prevails over death. The section contains two parallel passages. The first, and shorter (4:25-26), concludes the Yahwist story of the origins. The void left by Abel is filled by Seth, the new founder of the people of God. Enosh, son of Seth, is the first to know the Lord under the ineffable name of Yahweh, which will later be revealed to the Israelites (Ex 3:14-15). The other passage (Gen 5:1-32), from the Priestly tradition, links up with chapter 1. The image of God, which was imprinted in the first human beings, has not been completely destroyed by sin but passes on in some manner to their descendants (see Gen 9:6). The extraordinary ages reached by these individuals have a symbolic value, but the meaning is obscure to us; the ancient lists of Sumerian-Babylonian kings likewise assign them very great lengths of life.
One of the patriarchs, Enoch, seems privileged: he is placed seventh in the list and has a much shorter life than the others, but the number of his years is a perfect number, that of the days in a solar year. The writer emphasizes his holiness and describes his end in a mysterious fashion, not saying that he died. All this suggests that the righteous are ripe for a higher destiny. - Genesis 4:25 Who was named Seth: Hebrew, Shet, is explained by its assonance with the Hebrew verb, shat, which means “[God] has placed” (i.e., “has granted”).