The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 158

either to Abel or to a sin offering, regards Ver, 10.-Satislied thnt tho guilty l\·ntri• the langt11ige AS warning Cain against the cide is resolved to mako no acknowledgment dangers of yielding to sin. of his deed, the omniscient Judge pIQceeds yer. S.-~nd Ca.in talked _with (lite;ally, to chnrge him with his sin. And he-i. e. smd to) his brother. .6.1,).8,oµiv u, ro Jchovah-eaid, What hast thou done1 Thus .,.,Uov (LXX.); egrediamu.r foras (Vulgate). intimating his perfect cognisance of the fact The Samaritan and Syriacversions int-erpolata which his prisoner was attompting to deny, to th: sam,~ eff~ct. The Jerusalem Targum What a revelation it must have been to the rxplnm~- Camum cum Abele contendisse inwardly trembling culprit of tho impossi- de Y~!a ~t~rnll;,, ~e cx~mo judicio, et provi- bility of eluding the besetting God I (Ps. dcnt.1a d1nnn, mserting a Jong conversation cxxxix. 6). The voice of thy brother's blood rommcnl'ing, "Yeni, egrediamur ad supcr- (literally, bloods, i e. of this nnd all sub- ficirm agri ; " but the obvious supplement is sequent me.rtyrs-Chald. Par.) crieth unto to be found in the subject matter of the pre- me. A common Scriptural expression con- ,-ious Yerse (Hieronymus, Aben Ezra, Gcseni- cerning murder and other crimes (eh. xviii. us ). It is not age.inst this tl1at it argues too 20, 21 ; xix. 13 ; Exod. iii. 9 ; Heb. xii. 24 ; much moral goodness in Cain to suppose the.t James v. 4). The blood cryin~ is n symbol he would tellb.is younger brother of Jehovah's of the soul crying for its nght to live admonition (Knobel) ; and it certainly re- (Lange). In this instance the cry wa.s I\ lieves us from the necessity of adding to the demand for the punishment of the murderer; moral turpitude of the unhappy fratricide by and that cry he.s reverberated through all depicting him as deliberarely planning his lands and down through all il"es, proclaiming fayourcd brother'5 murder, caIT}'ing the fell vengeance against the shed'aer of innocent purpose "-ithin his guilty "t-osom, watching blood (cf. eh. ix. 6). "Hence the prayer his opportunity (Bottcher and Knobel, who that the earth may not drink in the blood substitute '"IQ~, he watched, for "lQI$, he said), shed upon it, in order that it may not thereby and at last accomplishing his unhallowed become invisible and inaudible " (Knobel). purpose by means of treachery. Beyond all Cf. Job xvi. 18 ; Isa. x:xvi. 21 ; Ezek. xxiv. question the historian desi~ to describe not 7 ; also Eschylus, 'Chcephorre,' 310, 398 an act of culpable homicide, but n deed of (quoted by T. Lewis in Lange). From the red-handed murder; yet the impression ground. Into which it had disnppeared, but which his language conveys is that of a gotren. not, as the murderer hoped, to become for- crime rather suddenly conceived and hurried- Vers. 11, 12.-Convicted, if not humbled, ly performed than deliberately planned and treacherously executed. And it ea.me to pa.se, the culprit is speechless, and can only listen in consternation to the threefold judgment when they were in the :field, that Cain rose which pronounced him "cursed in his soul, up against Abel bis brother, and slew him. vagabond in his body, and unprosperous in Ver. 9.-And the Lord said unto Ca.in. his lnbours" (Willet). And now-either at " Probably soon after the event, at the next thu time, already (cf. Josh. xiv. 11; Hosea time of sacrifice, and at the usual place of iL 10), or for this cause, because thou hast offering" (Bonar). Where is Abel thy bro- done this (eh. iii 14 ; cf. eh. xix. 9 ; Exod. ther 1 "A question fi.tred to go straight to xviii 19)-art thou cursed. Theforst cursi the murderer's conscience, and no less fi.tt,ed pronounced against a human being. Adam to ronse h.iB wrathful jealousy, as showing and Eve were not cursed, though the serpent how truly Abel was the beloved one" (ibid). and the devil were. If we may not con- Whether spoken by Adam (Luther), or whis- clude that Cain was thereby for ever excluded pered within h.iB breast by the still small from the hope of salvation if he should voice of conscience, or, as is most probable, repent, still less must we explain the DivinE utrered from between the cherubim, Cain felt judgment down to a simple sentence ol that he was being examine.J. by a Divine voice banishment from Eden. The fratricide wa1 (Calvin). And (in reply) he ■ aid (adding false- henceforth to bear the displeasure and in, hood, effronrery, and even profanity to mur- dignation of his Maker, whose image in Abel der), I know not: am I my brother's keeper 1 he had slain ; of which indignation and dis, 'fhe inquiry neither of ignorance nor of in- pleasure his expatriation was to be a symbol nocence, but the desperate resort of one who Different explanations have been offered o; felt himself closely tracked by avenging the clause, from the earth, or ground, Ad, justice and about to be convicted of his crime. ham.ah, which, however, cannot mean mori "He showeth himself a lyer in saying, 'I than the ground, which already had beeE know not ; ' wicked awl, projane in thinking cursed (eh. iii. I 7 ; Lange), since " the cur111 he could hide his sin from God ; unj'll,8t in of the soil a.nd the misery of man cannot weJ: denying him.self to be his brother's keeper; be compared with each other" (Kalisch); 01 obstinate and deaperate in not confessing simply away from the di.strict, the scene 01 l, is sin " <Willet: cf. r~. x. ). his crime (Kalisch Speaker's, Rosenmiiller, CB. IV. 1-lG.] THE BOOK OF G RNESTS.