The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 159

Tuch, Gerlach, Delitzech), as if nil that the The first of these is favoured by the re- aentence implied was banishment from Eden; maining portion of his address, which shows but must involvo in addition the idea that that that which had paralysed his guilty Lho curse wns to lenp upon him from the spirit was not the wickedness of his deed, earth, or ground, in goneral (Aben Ezra, but the overwhelming retribution which Kimchi, Knobel, Alford, Murphy). Which had leapt so unexpectedly from its bosom. bath opened her mouth to receive thy The real cause of his despair was the sen• brother's blood from thy hand. The terrible tence which had gone forth against him, significance of this curse is further opened in and the articles of which he no,v reca- tho words which follow. The earth was to pitulates. Behold, thou hast driven me be against him - 1. In refusing him its this day-" Out of the sentence of his own substance. • When thou tilleat (literally, conscience Cain makes a clear, positive, shale till) the ground, it shall not hence- Divine decree of banishment" (Lange)- forth yield (literally, add to give) unto thee from the face of the earth. Literally, the her strength. Neither a double curse upon ground, i. e. the Janel of Eden. "Adam's the entire earth for man's sake (Alford), nor sin brought expulsion from the inner circle, a doom of sterility inflicted only on the Cain's from the outer" (Bonnr). And from district of Eden (Kalisch) ; but a judgment thy face shall I be hid. Either (1) from on Cain and his descendants with respect to the place where the Divine presence was their labours, Their tillage of the ground specially manifested, i. e. at the gate of was not to prosper, which ultimately, Bonar Eden, which does not contradict (Kalisch) thinks, drove the Cainites to city-building the great Biblical truth of the Divine omni- and mechanical invention. 2. In denying presence (cf. Exod, xx. 24); or, (2) moro him a home. A fugitive and a vagabond- generally, from the enjoyment of the Divine literally, moving and wandering; "groan- favour (cf. Deut xxxi. 18). "To be hidden ing and trembling" (LXX., erroneously), from the faCJl of God is to be not regarded "banished and homeless" (Keil)-shaU thou by Go,l, or nrit protected by his guardian be in the earth. ".As robbers are wont to care" rC:Alvfa). And I shall be a fugitive be who have no quiet and secure resting- and a vagabond. ".A vagabond and a runn- place" (Calvin) ; driven on hy the agonising gate" ('Iyndale, Coverdale, 'Bish<>ps' Dible'). tortures of a remorseful and alarmed con- Vagus et p;·ofugua (Vulgate,; vagus et in- science, and not simply by "the earth deny- festus agitationibua (Tremellius and Junius). iny to him the expected fruits of his labour" In the earth. The contemplation of his (Delitzsch). The ban of wande1ing, which miserable doom, acting on his guilty con- David pronounced upon his enemies (Ps. !ix. science, inspired him with a fearful appre- 12; cix. 10), in later years fell upon the hension, to which in closing he gives Jews, who "for shedding the blood of Christ, expression in the hearing of his Judge. And the most innocent Lamb of God, arevngabonds it shall come to pass, that every one--not to this day over the face of the earth" beast (Josephus, Kimchi, Michaelis), but (Willet). Thus the earth was made the person-that fl.ndeth me shall slay me. minister of Gotl's curse, not a partaker of it, ".Amongst the ancient Romans a ma.n cursed 8ll some have strangely imagined, as if by for any wickedness might be freely killed drinking up the blood of .Abel it had become (Dionysius Halicarnass., 1. 2). Amongst a pnrticipant of Cain's crime (Delitzsch). the Gauls the excommunicated were deprived Vers. 13, 14. -And Cain said unto the Lord, of any benefit of law (Cresar. 'de Bello My punishment (or my sin) is greater than Gallico,' I. 6 ; cf. nlso Sophocles, '<Edip. I can bear. Or, than can be borµe away. Tyrannus ')" (.Ainsworth). The apprehen- Interpreted in either way, this is scarcely sion which Cain cherished has been explained the language of confession, "sufficiens con- as an oversight on the part of the narrator fessio, sed intempestiva" (Chrysostom); but, (Schumann and Tuch) ; as a mistake on the as the majority of interpreters Rre agreed, part of Cain, who had no reason to know of desperation (Calvin). .According to the that the world was not populated (T. Lewis) ; first rendering Cain is understood as deplor- as referring to the bloo,l aven~~rs of the ing not the enormity of his sin, but the future who might arise from Dis father's severity of his punishment, under which he family (Rosenmiiller, Delitzsch) ; and also, reels and staggers as one amazed (Aben Ezra, aDll perhaps with as much probability, as Kimchi, Calvin, Keil, Delitzsch, Murphy, indicating that already, in the 130 years Alford, Speaker's, Kalisch). .According to thnt had gone, .Adam's descendants were not the secc,nd, from the terrific nature of the limitod to the two brothers nnd their wives blow which had descended on him Co.in (Ho.vernick). awakens to the conviction that his sin was Ver, 15.-The condemnetl fratricitle's ap- too heinous to be forgiven (margin, Septua- prehensions were allayed by II special act gint, Vulgate, Theodotion, .Arabic, Syriar., of grace. And the Lord said unto him, Onkelos, Sam11ritl\n, Gesenius1 Wor:!n·ofth). N!erefore (the LXX., Symm., 1'he0Jotio11 GENESIS. il 82 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [en. 1v. 1-10.