2 Samuel 2:23

2:23 But Asahel ¹  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ²  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ³  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁴  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁵ 

2 Samuel 3:27

3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gate as if to speak privately with him. Joab then stabbed him ⁶  in the abdomen and killed him, avenging the shed blood of his brother Asahel. ⁷ 

Genesis 4:8

4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” ⁸  While they were in the field, Cain attacked ⁹  his brother ¹⁰  Abel and killed him.

Genesis 4:1

The Story of Cain and Abel

4:1 Now ¹¹  the man had marital relations with ¹²  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ¹³  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ¹⁴  a man just as the Lord did!” ¹⁵ 

Genesis 2:5-6

2:5 Now ¹⁶  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ¹⁷  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ¹⁸  2:6 Springs ¹⁹  would well up ²⁰  from the earth and water ²¹  the whole surface of the ground. ²² 

Genesis 2:1

2:1 The heavens and the earth ²³  were completed with everything that was in them. ²⁴ 

[2:23]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ² tn Heb “the.” The article functions here as a possessive pronoun.

[2:23]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Asahel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they stand.”

[3:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he struck him down there [in] the stomach.”

[3:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he [i.e., Abner] died on account of the blood of Asahel his [i.e., Joab’s] brother.”

[4:8]  ⁸ 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.

[4:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

[4:8]  ¹⁰ sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).

[4:1]  ¹¹ tn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) introduces a new episode in the ongoing narrative.

[4:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the man knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Here is another sound play (paronomasia) on a name. The sound of the verb קָנִיתִי (qaniti, “I have created”) reflects the sound of the name Cain in Hebrew (קַיִן, qayin) and gives meaning to it. The saying uses the Qal perfect of קָנָה (qanah). There are two homonymic verbs with this spelling, one meaning “obtain, acquire” and the other meaning “create” (see Gen 14:19, 22; Deut 32:6; Ps 139:13; Prov 8:22). The latter fits this context very well. Eve has created a man.

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “with the Lord.” The particle אֶת־ (’et) is not the accusative/object sign, but the preposition “with” as the ancient versions attest. Some take the preposition in the sense of “with the help of” (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת; cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV), while others prefer “along with” in the sense of “like, equally with, in common with” (see Lev 26:39; Isa 45:9; Jer 23:28). Either works well in this context; the latter is reflected in the present translation. Some understand אֶת־ as the accusative/object sign and translate, “I have acquired a man – the Lord.” They suggest that the woman thought (mistakenly) that she had given birth to the incarnate Lord, the Messiah who would bruise the Serpent’s head. This fanciful suggestion is based on a questionable allegorical interpretation of Gen 3:15 (see the note there on the word “heel”).

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

[2:6]  ¹⁹ tn The conjunction vav (ו) introduces a third disjunctive clause. The Hebrew word אֵד (’ed) was traditionally translated “mist” because of its use in Job 36:27. However, an Akkadian cognate edu in Babylonian texts refers to subterranean springs or waterways. Such a spring would fit the description in this context, since this water “goes up” and waters the ground.

[2:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “was going up.” The verb is an imperfect form, which in this narrative context carries a customary nuance, indicating continual action in past time.

[2:6]  ²¹ tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same nuance as the preceding verb. Whenever it would well up, it would water the ground.

[2:6]  ²² tn The Hebrew word אֲדָמָה (’adamah) actually means “ground; fertile soil.”

[2:1]  ²³ tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and all the host of them.” Here the “host” refers to all the entities and creatures that God created to populate the world.