fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:6–7)
God acknowledges Cain’s anger and dejection. God does not apologize but pushes on with alternatives for Cain to consider. God does not explain the divine choice but instead offers Cain the opportunity to react to reverse his situation. God implies that the way Cain deals with this current situation will determine his future. If Cain accepts God’s choice with grace and works to do well, God will accept and have regard for him, and Cain will be able to lift his countenance.
However, if Cain continues to be angry and dejected, he will be overcome by sin. Notice that in verse 7 the word “sin” is mentioned—for the first time in the Bible. “Sin,” as used here, connotes an offense and its subsequent penalty. Sin is characterized as active, lurking, sneaky, waiting to pounce, consume, and overwhelm Cain. Sin is waiting to overtake him, but Cain is admonished to master sin. There are no clues about how to do this except that Cain should “do well.” God seems to assume that it is within Cain’s power to ward off sin and do well despite its lure and his inability to resist it up to this point. Is the implication that he has not done well? The text does not say but implies such. Here Cain has another opportunity to ask God about the divine choice of the younger brother; again, though, Cain does not question or argue with God. Cain stands passive in the face of God’s choice.
Cain, however, does not seem to heed God’s warning. Instead, he invites Abel into an open field—his territory. Then Cain kills his brother in cold blood! This is the first murder in the Bible. There are no details about the incident; it is revealed in a matter-of-fact manner in Genesis 4:8: “And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.” We are not told how Cain killed his brother; we have no sense of whether Abel put up a fight or was caught off guard; and there is no indication of whether Cain was anguished after the dastardly deed. We might conclude, though, that Cain attacked his brother in the same way that sin waits to attack him. He acts out what sin will do to him if he does not change his attitude.
The storyteller is bent on outlining God’s reaction to the deed. God asks the simple question: “Where is your brother Abel?” (Gen. 4:9a). A simple question assumes a simple answer, but Cain continues to seethe in his emotions. Rather than confess his deed, Cain turns the question back on God. His lack of responsibility and remorse mirrors that of his father. When God confronts Adam about eating of the forbidden tree, Adam places the blame on God and Eve: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12).
Adam’s way of coping with a difficult situation was to shift the blame from himself onto someone else. Rather than own up to his complicity in the act, he passes the responsibility to God and the woman God created and gave to Adam. Unfortunately, Cain has learned nothing from his father’s situation, nor has Cain heeded the warning of God to do well. Cain’s reaction heightens the tension in the story, and we suspect that nothing good can now emerge from the situation. Cain spouts the now infamous line of familial distress: “. . . am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9b)
The Hebrew word translated “keeper” is from a verb whose meanings include: “to eye,” “to lie in wait for,” “to hedge about,” “to guard,” “to protect,” “to attend to,” and “to keep.” Thus, a range of possibilities is open for God to consider. Cain’s response has a double edge to it. Cain, produced by Eve with the help of YHWH, asks whether it is his job to watch over the weaker, younger, transitory brother. Cain may be implying that it is God’s job to take care of Abel since God accepted him and his offering over Cain. Abel’s identity is as Cain’s brother and his brother erased him. Abel does not speak and seems to be a mere foil for the action between God and Cain. However, Abel’s blood cries out to God from the ground—the ground to which Cain (and Adam) is intimately connected. The Hebrew phrase points to the cry of the afflicted, oppressed, abused, brutalized innocent victim. Cain’s attitude toward his brother causes great concern for God.
Cain denies knowing where his brother is, and asks if it is his responsibility to take care of his brother. God has created the situation, so God now has to deal with the mess. If God is so concerned about the chosen one and his gifts, then God should be the one watching over Abel, not Cain. Since Abel is acceptable, why should Cain be concerned about him? There is anger in Cain’s response—the hurt emotions are difficult to mask. He lives with his pain and takes what seems like a coping device—he eliminates the source of his despair. Instead of dealing with God, who started the whole thing, Cain chooses to get rid of his brother. Because God had warned Cain about his reaction, Cain had the choice of getting over the pain and moving on. Cain does not get over it, however, and chooses a violent way out. He is guilty of premeditated murder. In a fit of rage, he makes a conscious decision to rise up against his brother, perhaps hoping that this will allow him to lift up his countenance. Cain’s response drips with sarcasm, and the tension builds.
God reacts here as in Genesis 3 while searching for the man and woman in the Garden of Eden: God seeks an explanation for why things have suddenly changed. Prior to the humans’ eating of the forbidden fruit, God moved freely among them. Suddenly, God has to seek them and calls out to them. When God realizes that they are hiding, God seeks an explanation for their behavior. And this pattern continues. There is no indication of what the relationship between God and Cain has been, but now things have changed. God seems to have injected the tension between the brothers by accepting one and rejecting the other. And for no apparent reason, Cain is left to his own devices to deal with the blow to his ego and persona as he learns of God’s rejection. Still, God offers Cain a range of reactions—with their consequences.
Knowing that things have changed, God asks Cain to explain himself: “What have you done?” (Gen. 4:10a). And before Cain can answer, God moves into the heart of the matter by acknowledging Abel’s death and pronouncing judgment against Cain. God moves so quickly we can scarcely catch our breath as the echo of Cain’s question lingers in the air. But God now is angry that Cain chose not to take the high road. Instead, Cain gave in to his anger, jealousy, envy, and depression—and now there is a price to be paid:
“Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” (Gen. 4:10–12)
Blood is an important element in Hebrew theology; it symbolizes life and life’s power. To spill another’s blood is not acceptable (Gen. 9:4–7; Exod. 20:13; Lev. 24:20–21; Deut. 19:2). There is a penalty for spilling the blood of an innocent person, and Cain will have to pay. However, God’s punishment seems not to fit the crime. Cain is cursed from the ground that now holds his brother’s spilled blood; the earth, now contaminated with human blood, will not yield its fruits without great difficulty; and Cain will be a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth. His punishment also mirrors that of his father, Adam: the earth is no longer friendly and abundant for them. The earth becomes a source of hardship and suffering. Cain is sent into exile as Adam was banished from the Garden. Both men now live in a changed reality. Cain’s punishment seems like an overreaction by God, since there has been no stipulation against or penalty established for murder. But it may reflect Cain’s overreaction to God’s choice of Abel.
Cain is quick to let God know how he feels this time around. No longer passive and silent before God, Cain has the nerve to whine about his punishment:
Cain said to YHWH, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” (Gen. 4:13–14)
Cain acknowledges the pain of being driven from the soil and from God’s face. This relationship is important to Cain,
