Cain (Heb. Kayin^ *)^^, a lanoe [but see below]), the name of a man and of a city. See Kentte ; Tu- bal-Cain.
1. (Sept. and N. T. Kd'iV. The root seems to be "l^p, to heat^ perhaps with allusion to the murder ; the context, however, ver. 1, makes thi8=n3^, to cr&xtej cbUm; others, as Ensebius and Chrysostom, derive it firom some root signifying envy; Von Bohlen, Introd. to Gen, ii, 86, seeks it in the Arabic kayn^ a smafA, fh>m the arts introduced by the Cainites; Joeephns Orscises it, Kdic, -toe, Ant, i, 2, 2.) The first-bom (B.C. ap- parenUy cir. 4170) of the human race, and likewise the first murderer and ftatridde, B.C. cir. 4048. His his- tory is detailed in Gen. chap, iv ; the £EU!ts there given are in brief these : He was the eldest son of Adam and Eve ; he followed the business of agriculture ; in a fit of jealousy, roused by the rejection of his own sacrifice and the acceptance of Abel's, he committed the crime of murder, for which he was expelled from Eden, and led the life of an exile ; he settled in the land of Nod, and bunt a city, which he named after his son Enoch ; his descendants are enumerated, together with the in- ventions for which they were remarkable. Occasion- al references to Cain are made in the N. T. (Heb. xi, 4; lJohnili,12; Jude 11).
Among all the instances of crime, none impress the mind with a stronger feeling of horror than that of Cain. It is not, however, clear that he had fhlly pre- meditated taking the U/e ot his brother, if, indeed, he was aware by what a slight accident death would en- sue ; for this was the first instance of human mortal- ity. But it is certain that he had resolved upon some desperate outrage upon his brother^s person, and he deliberately took occasion to perpetrate it. Abel, as most think, brought two offerings, the one an oblation, the other a sacrifice. Cain brought but the former — a mere acknowledtnnent, it is supposed, of the sover- eignty of God — neglecting to offer the sacrifice, which would have been a confession of fidlen nature, and, typically, an atonement for sin. It was not, there- fore, the mere difference of feeling with which the two offerings were brought which constituted the virtue of the one or the guilt of the other brother. " The ma- lignity of his temper showed itself in his unwillingness to ask his brother for a victim from among his herd. He offered before God an unlawful sacrifice,** because a bloodless one, Heb. ix, 22 (Jarvis, Church of the Re- deemed^ pw 14). The circumstances connected with this offence are related in a brief but graphic manner in the Heb. text, the force of which is not well brought out in the Auth. Vers. (Gen. iv, 2-16). Abel, behig a
' herdsman, natorally brought at the end of tlie week I (for the Sabbath was already a weU-known institatioi) an offisring of the first-bom and fattest of his flocks, while Cain, as a husbandman (hence the greater fe> verity of the curse which blasted his professional bopee), presented an obhition of vegetable productions. Th< undevout temper and wicked nature of Cain axe suffi- ciently evinced by his resentment against the Al- mighty, a6 if partial to his brother (see below). The Divine Being condescends to expostulate with him on his unreasonable behavior, and to warn him of the I danger of cherishing the jealousy which he aeems to I have already entertained against Abel : *^ If thou re- ' formest, there is forgiveness [with me for thy past of- fences] ; but if not, [then beware, for] sin crooches at ; thy door [like a wild beast ready to seize Uiee on the I first opportunity], and against thee is its design; hut I do thou subdue it [i. e. thy evil disposition]. ' ' Instead I of heeding this advice, however, the ill-natured man. taking the first occasion to narrate the circmnstancc ' to his brother (probably in an upbraiding manner), fell into the very snare of Satan against which he had been wamed; his feelings became again excited, as ther two were alone conversing in the open field, and, there J being no one near to witness or avert the con8eq[aenc», { he suddenly turned against his brother, and by an an> I gry blow (probably with some agricultural implement, in the formation of which he had doubtless already be- I gun to exercise the mechanical ingenuity for which I his descendants became liimous) he laid him dead upoa the ground. Instead of the penitence which the siglit of his brother's blood ought to have inspired in his hor- ror-stricken soul, the craven murderer insolently de- mands of the all-seeing God, when questioned as to hi« crime, *'I know nothing about the matter.; am I my brother's keeper ?'' But when conviction is fastened upon him, and the penalty announced, with the de- spairing but still impenitent remorse of Judas, the guilty wretch exclaims, " My iniquity is too great for forgiveness I (itiiOW •^si^iilj; Sept, fui^wv 4 curia Hov Tov dffn^^vai fu') for thou hast utterly driven me out this day from the fece of the ground [of this pless- ant region]," and I shall be in danger of starvation, and even of perishing by the hand of every stranger whom I may meet. (See Kitto's Daily Bible IlhuL in loc. ; Fechtii Hist. MMit et Caini, RosL 1704.)