Mga Komentaryo sa Bibliya

cir. 3865 Cain talked with Abel, either,

1. Familiarly and friendly, as he used to do, thereby to make him secure and careless; or by way of expostulation and contention;

in the field, into which Abel was led, either by his own employment, or,

2. By Cain’s persuasion; this being a fit place for the execution of his wicked purpose.

Slew him, possibly with stone or club, or with some iron tool belonging to husbandry.

Where is Abel? Not that God was ignorant where he was, but partly to convince him of his sin, and to lead him to repentance, and partly to instruct judges to inquire into causes, and hear the accused speak for themselves, before they pass sentence.

Thy brother, whom nature and near relation obliged thee to love and preserve.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Why dost thou inquire of me concerning him who is of age to look to himself? Is he such a stripling that he needs a guardian? Or didst thou ever make me his guardian?

I hear thy words, but what say thy actions? What a hideous crime hast thou committed! In vain dost thou endeavour to hide it or deny it. In the Hebrew it is bloods, either to aggravate the crime, or to show the plenty of the blood split, or to charge him with the murder of all those that might naturally have come out of Abel’s loins; which was a far greater crime in the nonage of the world, when the world greatly wanted people.

From the ground, upon which it was spilt by thy bloody hands.

As the earth was cursed for thy father’s sake, so now art thou cursed in thy own person;

from the earth, or, in regard of the earth, which shall grudge thee both its fruits and a certain dwelling-place, and which had more humanity to thy brother than thou hadst; for it kindly received and covered that blood which thou didst cruelly and unnaturally shed upon it.

Or, that ground, which doth or shall fall to thy share, besides the first and general curse inflicted upon the whole earth, shall have this peculiar curse added to it,

it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength, i.e. its virtue and fruit, in such proportion as it hath hitherto done.

A vagabond shalt thou be, banished from thy own land and kindred, and father’s house, and from the whole society of the faithful, and wandering hither and thither. Others render the words mourning and trembling; or, trembling and wandering. These two words note both the unquietness and horror of his mind and conscience, and the unsettledness of his habitation and condition, and, as some add, the trembling of his body.

Hebrew, My sin; but sin seems here to be put for punishment, as before, Genesis 4:7 Genesis 19:15 Leviticus 5:1 Psalm 69:27 Proverbs 12:21; for Cain was not so sensible of his sin as of the ill effects of it, as himself shows, Genesis 4:14.

Consider how severely thou usest me; thou hast driven me out, with public infamy, as the word signifies,

from the face of the earth, or, this earth, my native land,

and from thy face, i.e. favour and protection, as the public enemy of mankind, and as one devoted by thee to destruction.

Quest. Whom did Cain fear, when it appears not that there were any but his father and mother?

Answ. So ignorant people conceive; but it is a fond conceit to think that there were no more men than are expressed in this book, where God never intended to give a catalogue of all men, but only of the church, or those who had some relation to or concern with it. Nay, that there were very many thousands of men now in being, is very credible upon these rational grounds and suppositions.

1. That Adam and Eve did, according to God’s precept and blessing, Genesis 1:26, procreate children presently after the fall, and God’s gracious reconcilement to them; and consequently their children did so, when they came to competent age.

2. That those first men and women were endowed by God with extraordinary fruitfulness, and might have two, three, four, or more at a time, (as divers persons long after had), which was then expedient for the replenishing of the world; and the like may be judged of their children during the world’s infancy.

3. That this murder was committed but a little before the hundred and thirtieth year of Adam’s age, which appears by comparing Genesis 4:25 and Genesis 5:3. Before which time, how vast and numerous an offspring might have come from Adam, none can be ignorant that can and shall make a rational computation.

Therefore; or, assuredly, as the word signifies, Jeremiah 2:32, Jeremiah 5:2, Zechariah 11:17; that thou mayst see how I hate murder, and how impartially I shall punish all murderers; and that thou mayst be unhappily free from this fear, that thou mayst live for an example to mankind, for a terror to thyself and others.

Sevenfold, i.e. abundantly; he shall be plagued with many and grievous punishments, as the phrase is used, Leviticus 26:28 Psalm 12:7, Psalm 79:12, and in many other places.

A mark upon Cain. What this was, whether a trembling of his body, or a ghastliness of his countenance, or what other visible token of the Divine displeasure, God hath not revealed, nor doth it concern us to know.