1And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
4:1-81And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Adam knew Eve and she conceived. [1]
The result was Cain, who became a farmer.
Then came Abel, a shepherd.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Cain brought some of his produce to God.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And Abel brought the firstlings of his flock, along with some fat.
God respected Abel, but he had no respect for Cain's offering. [2]
Cain was angry and looked sad.
6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Why are you angry? And why do you look sad?
If you do well, you'll be accepted. If not, sin will lie at your door.
He'll desire you, and you'll rule over him. (Or something like that.)
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Cain talked to Abel about it. Then he killed him. [3]
4:9-189 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
God said to Cain,
Where is your brother Abel?
Cain answered,
I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? [4]
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out from the ground.
Now you are cursed. You won't be as successful a farmer as you would have been.
And you'll be a fugitive and a vagabond. [5]
13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.Cain said,
My punishment is more than I can bear.
You have driven off the face of the earth. I will be hidden from your face.
I will be a fugitive and a vagabond, and whoever finds me will kill me. [6]
15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
God said to Cain,
Whoever kills you will suffer a seven-fold vengeance.
God put a mark on Cain, so that whoever found him wouldn't kill him. [7]
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Cain went where God isn't present: the land of Nod, east of Eden. [8]
17And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
18 And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
Cain knew his wife [9], and she had a son named Enoch. Cain built a city and named it Enoch after his son.
Enoch had a son named Irad, who had a son named Mehujael, who had a son named Methusael, who had a son named Lamech.
4:19-2419And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
Lamech took two wives. [10]
23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
24If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
Lamech said to his two wives [11],
have killed a man. [12]
If Cain will be avenged sevenfold, then I'll be avenged 77-fold.
4:25-2725And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
Adam had sex again with his wife, and she had another son, whose name was Seth.
26And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
This is the first sexual intercourse mentioned in the Bible.
God liked Abel's dead animals better than Cain's fruits and vegetables. Why? Well, no reason is given, but it probably had something to do with the amount of pain, blood, and gore involved.
Because God liked Abel's animal sacrifice more than Cain's vegetables, Cain killed his brother Abel in a fit of religious jealousy.
Quoted by President Obama at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast, implying that the answer is, "Yes, we are our brother's keeper," although Cain probably meant something more like, "I don't know, it's not my turn to watch him."
As a punishment for killing Abel, God says Cain will be "a fugitive and a vagabond." Yet in just a few verses (4:16-17) Cain will settle down, marry, have a son, and build a city. This is not the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond.
Cain is worried after killing Abel and says, "Every one who finds me shall slay me." This is a strange concern since there were only two other humans alive at the time -- his parents!
God is worried too. So he put a mark on Cain so that whoever finds him won't kill him. (Good idea.)
But what could the mark have told anyone? Did it say something like, "My name is Cain. I killed my brother Abel. If you kill me, God will punish you seven times as much as I got punished. (Which was pretty much not at all. Seven times zero is zero.)"
That's nice, but where the hell did she come from? The Bible doesn't mention any of Cain's sisters.
Well, maybe he married his mom, or maybe God pulled another creation over in the next county. In any case, Cain and the mysterious Mrs. Cain have a son (another blue cigar!). His name is Enoch and he builds a city (population 3).
Lamech is the first of a long line of biblical men with more than one wife.
The words that Lamech said to his wives are sometimes called "The Song of the Sword."
Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
Very inspiring.
The Bible doesn't say who Lamech killed, but that didn't stop the Rabbis from saying.
Rashi came up with a story that claimed that Lamech, who was blind at the time, shot his great-great-great grandfather Cain, with the help of his son Tuabl-Cain.
Here's a picture to help you sort this all out.
Where did Seth find his wife?
The brief story of Lamech is the first mention of polygamy in the Bible. It's not clear who Lamech killed, but we can presume from the text that there was an interaction between he and the person that left Lamech wounded. In typical fashion, the response is murder.
There are two Lamechs, however. The one in this chapter is the son of Methushael, but there will be another Lamech who shows up later as a descendant of Seth. That Lamech's father is Methusaleh. Two different Lamechs with fathers having anagram names. Hmm...
It's great knowing that the very first childbirth (at least, according to the Bible) brought forth a jealous murderer. ..and some claim that his father may have been a talking snake.
Adam and Eve boink. Yes, I'm not going to mince words here. Adam and Eve had sex. They fucked. They banged. They bumped uglies. And, lo and behold, Eve learns that God wasn't bullshitting when he told her that childbirth was gonna suck because she gave birth to a boy named Cain. After all of that, apparently the couple still hadn't had enough, so they went for round two, and ended up having Abel.
Sometime later, the two brothers decide to sacrifice some stuff to God, who we've established as a personal figure that can hold conversations with his creations. Cain sacrifices some fruits, vegetables, and grains, while Abel sacrifices some animals. God must be a fan of the 'Carnivore Diet' trend, because he went straight for Abel's sacrifice. Maybe it smelt better. (We'll learn later that God just loves the smell of burning flesh.)
Cain, a sore loser and participant in the first-ever sibling rivalry, commits the first-ever murder by taking the life of his own brother. Ouch. God exiles Cain, and Cain makes his way to the land of Nod, where other people live... somehow... Anyways, he finds a wife, has kids, those kids have kids, and so on until we meet Lamech, but who cares about him? All we need to know is that he has two wives and that he allegedly killed someone.
Meanwhile, Adam and Eve discuss Uganda again, and have a son named Seth, who is less murder-y than Cain was. And then Seth starts having kids, and we all know how this goes...