Genesis 4:8-16

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.

4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” ⁴  And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?” ⁵  4:10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? ⁶  The voice ⁷  of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! 4:11 So now, you are banished ⁸  from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 4:12 When you try to cultivate ⁹  the

ground it will no longer yield ¹⁰  its best ¹¹  for you. You will be a homeless wanderer ¹²  on the earth.” 4:13 Then Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment ¹³  is too great to endure! ¹⁴  4:14 Look! You are driving me off the land ¹⁵  today, and I must hide from your presence. ¹⁶  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.” 4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ¹⁷  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ¹⁸  Then the Lord put a special mark ¹⁹  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ²⁰  4:16 So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, ²¹  east of Eden.

Genesis 9:5-6

9:5 For your lifeblood ²²  I will surely exact punishment, ²³  from ²⁴  every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person ²⁵  I will exact punishment for the life of the individual ²⁶  since the man was his relative. ²⁷ 

9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, ²⁸ 

by other humans ²⁹ 

must his blood be shed;

for in God’s image ³⁰ 

God ³¹  has made humankind.”

Genesis 9:2

9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. ³²  Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. ³³ 

Genesis 14:6-7

14:6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is near the desert. ³⁴  14:7 Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, ³⁵  and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.

Acts 28:4

28:4 When the local people ³⁶  saw the creature hanging from Paul’s ³⁷  hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself ³⁸  has not allowed him to live!” ³⁹ 

[4:8]  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.

[4:8]  ² tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

[4:8]  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).

[4:9]  ⁴ sn Where is Abel your brother? Again the Lord confronts a guilty sinner with a rhetorical question (see Gen 3:9-13), asking for an explanation of what has happened.

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “The one guarding my brother [am] I?”

[4:10]  ⁶ sn What have you done? Again the Lord’s question is rhetorical (see Gen 3:13), condemning Cain for his sin.

[4:10]  ⁷ tn The word “voice” is a personification; the evidence of Abel’s shed blood condemns Cain, just as a human eyewitness would testify in court. For helpful insights, see G. von Rad, Biblical Interpretations in Preaching; and L. Morris, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 6 (1955/56): 77-82.

[4:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “cursed are you from the ground.” As in Gen 3:14, the word “cursed,” a passive participle from אָרָר (’arar), either means “punished” or “banished,” depending on how one interprets the following preposition. If the preposition is taken as indicating source, then the idea is “cursed (i.e., punished) are you from [i.e., “through the agency of”] the ground” (see v. 12a). If the preposition is taken as separative, then the idea is “cursed and banished from the ground.” In this case the ground rejects Cain’s efforts in such a way that he is banished from the ground and forced to become a fugitive out in the earth (see vv. 12b, 14).

[4:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “work.”

[4:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it will not again (תֹסֵף, tosef) give (תֵּת, tet),” meaning the ground will no longer yield. In translation the infinitive becomes the main verb, and the imperfect verb form becomes adverbial.

[4:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “its strength.”

[4:12]  ¹² tn Two similar sounding synonyms are used here: נָע וָנָד (na’ vanad, “a wanderer and a fugitive”). This juxtaposition of synonyms emphasizes the single idea. In translation one can serve as the main description, the other as a modifier. Other translation options include “a wandering fugitive” and a “ceaseless wanderer” (cf. NIV).

[4:13]  ¹³ tn The primary meaning of the Hebrew word עָוֹן (’avon) is “sin, iniquity.” But by metonymy it can refer to the “guilt” of sin, or to “punishment” for sin. The third meaning applies here. Just before this the Lord announces the punishment for Cain’s actions, and right after this statement Cain complains of the severity of the punishment. Cain is not portrayed as repenting of his sin.

[4:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “great is my punishment from bearing.” The preposition מִן (min, “from”) is used here in a comparative sense.

[4:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from upon the surface of the ground.”

[4:14]  ¹⁶ sn I must hide from your presence. The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10.

[4:15]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

[4:15]  ¹⁸ sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[4:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

[4:15]  ²⁰ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[4:16]  ²¹ sn The name Nod means “wandering” in Hebrew (see vv. 12, 14).

[9:5]  ²² tn Again the text uses apposition to clarify what kind of blood is being discussed: “your blood, [that is] for your life.” See C. L. Dewar, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 4 (1953): 204-8.

[9:5]  ²³ tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification. The verb דָּרָשׁ (darash) means “to require, to seek, to ask for, to exact.” Here it means that God will exact punishment for the taking of a life. See R. Mawdsley, “Capital Punishment in Gen. 9:6,” CentBib 18 (1975): 20-25.

[9:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from the hand of,” which means “out of the hand of” or “out of the power of” and is nearly identical in sense to the preposition מִן (min) alone.

[9:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and from the hand of the man.” The article has a generic function, indicating the class, i.e., humankind.

[9:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “of the man.”

[9:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from the hand of a man, his brother.” The point is that God will require the blood of someone who kills, since the person killed is a relative (“brother”) of the killer. The language reflects Noah’s situation (after the flood everyone would be part of Noah’s extended family), but also supports the concept of the brotherhood of humankind. According to the Genesis account the entire human race descended from Noah.

[9:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the blood of man.”

[9:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “by man,” a generic term here for other human beings.

[9:6]  ³⁰ sn See the notes on the words “humankind” and “likeness” in Gen 1:26, as well as J. Barr, “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis – A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968/69): 11-26.

[9:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:2]  ³² tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.

[9:2]  ³³ tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.

[14:6]  ³⁴ sn The line of attack ran down the eastern side of the Jordan Valley into the desert, and then turned and came up the valley to the cities of the plain.

[14:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “they returned and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh).” The two verbs together form a verbal hendiadys, the first serving as the adverb: “they returned and came” means “they came again.” Most English translations do not treat this as a hendiadys, but translate “they turned back” or something similar. Since in the context, however, “came again to” does not simply refer to travel but an assault against the place, the present translation expresses this as “attacked…again.”

[28:4]  ³⁶ tn Although this is literally βάρβαροι (barbaroi; “foreigners, barbarians”) used for non-Greek or non-Romans, as BDAG 166 s.v. βάρβαρος 2.b notes, “Of the inhabitants of Malta, who apparently spoke in their native language Ac 28:2, 4 (here β. certainly without derogatory tone…).”

[28:4]  ³⁷ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ³⁸ tn That is, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live. BDAG 250 s.v. δίκη 2 states, “Justice personified as a deity Ac 28:4”; L&N 12.27, “a goddess who personifies justice in seeking out and punishing the guilty – ‘the goddess Justice.’ ἡ δίκη ζῆν οὐκ εἴασεν ‘the goddess Justice would not let him live’ Ac 28:4.” Although a number of modern English translations have rendered δίκη (dikh) “justice,” preferring to use an abstraction, in the original setting it is almost certainly a reference to a pagan deity. In the translation, the noun “justice” was capitalized and the reflexive pronoun “herself” was supplied to make the personification clear. This was considered preferable to supplying a word like ‘goddess’ in connection with δίκη.

[28:4]  ³⁹ sn The entire scene is played out initially as a kind of oracle from the gods resulting in the judgment of a guilty person (Justice herself has not allowed him to live). Paul’s survival of this incident without ill effects thus spoke volumes about his innocence.