Genesis 4:2

The chapter opens just after the LORD has driven Adam and Eve out of the garden and set cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). The next thing we hear about is a marriage, a pregnancy and a birth. “Adam knew Eve his wife” uses the everyday Hebrew verb for knowing, yâdaʻ, as a modest way of speaking of the union of husband and wife. It is the knowing of two people who belong to each other, and Scripture speaks of it with reverence. The verb for conceived, hârâh, simply means to become pregnant. This is the first conception and the first birth recorded in the Bible.

God’s blessing at creation, “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), still stands after the fall. He had told Eve that she would bring forth children in sorrow (Genesis 3:16), and here the first of those children arrives. The judgment was real, and so is the mercy that lets life go on outside Eden. People ask whether the birth of Cain means that God approved of what Adam and Eve had done. It shows his patience and faithfulness toward the people he made, even while they bear the consequences of their sin, for by one man sin had entered the world, “and death by sin” (Romans 5:12).

Eve names the boy Cain, Qayin in Hebrew, and her words explain the name: “I have gotten a man”. The verb qânâh means to create, to acquire or buy, and to possess or own. The words “from the LORD” translate a short Hebrew phrase, ʼet Yᵉhôvâh, which can be read in more than one way. On one reading Eve has gotten a man with the LORD’s help, and on another she has received him from the LORD as a gift. A third reading takes the little word ʼet as marking the object, so that Eve says she has gotten “a man, the LORD”, as though she believed her son was the deliverer God had promised.

On any of these readings Eve is holding on to the promise she had just heard, that the woman’s seed would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). She was right to look for that deliverer and mistaken to think he had come. The son she welcomed with such joy became the first murderer (Genesis 4:8), and the story of mankind moves on from his day toward the corruption and judgment of the flood (Genesis 6–9). The true man from the LORD came much later: “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). He shared our flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14), and Paul calls him “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Eve’s hope was finally met in Christ.

Eve “again bare his brother Abel”. The word for again, yâçaph, means to add or to do a thing once more, and so a second son is added to the first. The words “his brother” name the tie on which the whole story turns, and the rest of Genesis 4 keeps coming back to it. Abel’s name, Hebel, is the same as the common Hebrew word for breath, vapour or vanity, and it fits a life that would pass so quickly.

The brothers take up the two great ways of living from the land. Abel is “a keeper of sheep”, tending and protecting the flock. Cain is “a tiller of the ground”, and the verb behind tiller, ʻâbad, is a broad word meaning to work, labour, serve, till or worship. Cain serves the very ground God had cursed for Adam’s sake, which now yields its bread only in the sweat of the face (Genesis 3:17–19). That same ground will one day receive his brother’s blood.

Outside Eden, after the fall of Genesis 3, fallen people still come to God with gifts. “In process of time” is literally “at the end of days”, from qêts, an end or extremity, and yôwm, day. The phrase may point to a set or customary time when offerings were brought, though Genesis leaves the details unsaid. Genesis records the offerings before any recorded command about them, and yet both brothers know to bring one. God may already have taught Adam’s family how to come to him, or they may simply have known that they owed thanks to the one who gave them everything. Either way, the weight of the story falls on how God receives what they bring.

Cain brings “of the fruit of the ground”, the pᵉrîy (fruit or produce) of the ʼădâmâh, the tilled soil. It is the natural gift of a farmer, the yield of his own hard labour on a cursed ground. The gift is called an offering, minchâh, a word for a present or tribute brought to a superior. In the law of Moses the same word names the grain or meal offering, so a gift of produce was a proper thing to bring. It is offered “unto the LORD”, Yᵉhôvâh, God’s own personal name, which comes from the verb “to be” and speaks of the God who always is. Cain is bringing his gift to the true God, the God who had spoken with his parents.

Abel “also brought”, and his gift was “of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof”. The firstlings, bᵉkôwrâh, are the firstborn, the first young of the flock and its prize, and the same word can mean the birthright. The fat, cheleb, was counted the richest part of an animal, and the word is used figuratively for the best of anything. Both details tell us that Abel gave from the top. The law of Moses later hallows the firstborn of the flock to the LORD and says plainly, “all the fat is the LORD’s” (Leviticus 3:16).

Hebrews gives the answer that Genesis leaves for later: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4). Abel came to God trusting him, and God bore witness that he was righteous. Cain’s gift lacked that faith, and God, who sees the heart, withheld his favour from it. In verse 5 the order is the same as before, “unto Cain and to his offering”, so it was first of all Cain himself whom God could not accept.

Believers differ on what else made the difference, and the passage supports more than one emphasis. Some point to the quality of the gifts. Abel brought the firstlings and the fat, the best he had, while Cain is said only to have brought “of the fruit of the ground”, with nothing said of first fruits or the choicest part. Others point to the blood. Abel’s gift was an animal slain, and on this reading he came to God in the way fallen people must, through a life given in their place, a way the law would later set out in detail and Christ would fulfil. The grain offering was a lawful gift in Israel’s worship, so on every reading the fault lay in Cain, the giver.

People ask whether God was arbitrary here, or played favourites. He judged by what he saw in each man, and he showed his fairness at once by coming to Cain and telling him how he too could be accepted. “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins” (Jeremiah 17:10), and “the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins” (Psalm 7:9). Proverbs puts the principle simply: “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight” (Proverbs 15:8). Cain’s own way of worship looked right to him, and “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

“And Cain was very wroth.” The verb chârâh means to glow or grow warm, and so to burn with anger, and it is joined to mᵉʼôd, “very”. Scripture uses this one verb for God’s anger and for man’s. Cain’s anger burned against the verdict God had given, and the envy behind it would soon turn on his brother, as envy later turned Joseph’s brothers against him (Genesis 37:11).

“And his countenance fell.” The verb is nâphal, to fall, and the countenance is pânîym, the face, a word plural in form and always used as a singular. A fallen face is a Hebrew way of describing a man whose looks have darkened. He hangs his head, downcast and sullen, perhaps ashamed, plainly offended and resentful. Cain’s face showed what was in his heart, as Proverbs says: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13).

“And the LORD said unto Cain”. God comes to Cain in person while Cain’s sin is still in his heart, and speaks with him face to face. His two questions, “Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?”, come from one who already knows the answer, since he saw both the anger and the fallen face.

People ask why God would ask what he already knew. He asks so that Cain will look honestly at his own heart, name his anger and own it. A question like this opens the way to confession and repentance. It is the same patience God shows when he says, “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18), and when he warns before the flood, “My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3).

God cares about what is happening inside Cain, and he deals with the anger while it is still anger. Jesus taught the same when he traced murder back to anger in the heart (Matthew 5:21–22). Scripture tells us, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23), and gives us the prayer “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23–24). When David was confronted with his own sin, he answered with the broken and humble prayer of Psalm 51. Cain’s next recorded act is the murder of his brother. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).

“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” The verb yâṭab means to be good or to go well, and in the form used here it means to do well. God’s question expects the answer yes. If Cain does what is right, from a right heart, he will be accepted. The word for accepted, sᵉʼêth, also carries the sense of elevation or dignity, a fitting word for a man whose face has fallen. The way back to God is open, and God himself points Cain to it.

“And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” The word for sin is chaṭṭâʼâh, from a root meaning to miss the mark, and it is used both for sin and for the sin offering. The verb for lieth, râbats, is used of an animal crouching or lying down, and the door, pethach, is the opening or threshold of a dwelling. Sin is pictured as a beast crouched at the entrance, close enough to spring, waiting for its chance to come in and take hold.

“And unto thee shall be his desire”. The word for desire, tᵉshûwqâh, is the same word God spoke to Eve: “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Sin longs to master Cain and have him for its own. Then God says, “and thou shalt rule over him”. The verb mâshal means to rule or have dominion. These words are a charge to Cain as well as a promise. He is able to master this sin, and he is responsible to do so.

This warning shows both God’s justice and his mercy. His justice is in the plain link between doing well and acceptance, and between doing ill and the danger at the door. His mercy is in his coming to Cain himself, before the murder, to show him the right way and plead with him to take it.

Abel’s gift was a blood sacrifice offered in faith, and it points ahead to the Lamb of God, whom John the Baptist announced: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Christ entered the holy place “by his own blood”, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:11–14). He appeared once “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26), and we are sanctified “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). God set him forth “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25), so the righteousness God credited to Abel’s faith is the righteousness he gives to all who trust in Christ.

Abel himself was soon slain, and his blood cried to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10). Hebrews sets the blood of Jesus beside it: “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). Abel’s blood called out for justice, and Christ’s blood speaks of forgiveness, grace and peace with God.

Where Cain failed to rule over sin, Jesus overcame it. He met the devil’s temptations in the wilderness and resisted every one (Matthew 4:1–11). He became our sin offering, for God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and by his death and resurrection he broke the power of sin, which is “the sting of death” (1 Corinthians 15:56). Now we are raised with him so that “we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), and the Spirit renews us to put off the old man and put on the new, created after God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22–24).

Through Christ our worship is accepted as well. The Father seeks those who worship him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24), Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and every believer belongs to “a royal priesthood” with access to God through him (1 Peter 2:9).

Paul urges us to present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1). Like Abel, we can bring God the first and the best of our time, our work and our gifts, and bring it trusting him. Our daily work, whether we tend living things or till the ground, is done before him and can be offered to him.

When God’s answer disappoints us, or when someone else is honoured and we are passed over, we stand where Cain stood. We can let anger smoulder, or we can let God’s questions search us and turn back to him in humility. Sin still crouches at the door, and the God who warned Cain gives his people grace to rule over it. His word to the downcast is still “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?”

And Eve’s story teaches us where to rest our hope. Her first hope was disappointed, yet God kept his promise in his own time, and the Son he sent is the one in whom our hope is safe.