Genesis 4:8

4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” ¹  While they were in the field, Cain attacked ²  his brother ³  Abel and killed him.

Exodus 2:13

2:13 When he went out ⁴  the next day, ⁵  there were ⁶  two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, ⁷  “Why are you attacking ⁸  your fellow Hebrew?” ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 22:26-27

22:26 You must not do anything to the young woman – she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person ¹⁰  and murders him, 22:27 for the man ¹¹  met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

¹ tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.

² tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

³ sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).

⁴ tn The preterite with the vav consecutive is subordinated to the main idea of the verse.

⁵ tn Heb “the second day” (so KJV, ASV).

⁶ tn The deictic particle is used here to predicate existence, as in “here were” or “there were.” But this use of הִנֵּה (hinneh) indicates also that what he encountered was surprising or sudden – as in “Oh, look!”

⁷ tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) is a legal term, meaning the guilty. This guilty man rejects Moses’ intervention for much the same reason Pharaoh will later (5:2) – he does not recognize his authority. Later Pharaoh will use this term to declare himself as in the wrong (9:27) and God in the right.

⁸ tn This is the third use of the verb נָכָה (nakha) in the passage; here it is the Hiphil imperfect. It may be given a progressive imperfect nuance – the attack was going on when Moses tried to intervene.

⁹ sn Heb “your neighbor.” The word רֵעֶךָ (re’ekha) appears again in 33:11 to describe the ease with which God and Moses conversed. The Law will have much to say about how the Israelites were to treat their “neighbors, fellow citizens” (Exod 20:16-17; 21:14, 18, 35; 22:7-11, 14, 26; cf. Luke 10:25-37).

¹⁰ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.