Genesis 4: Cain and Abel.

The chapter first, uninterrupted, from the English Standard Version of the Bible.  

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”  

2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.  3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,  

4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,  

5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.  

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 

7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 

10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.  

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11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.  

12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”  

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.  

14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 

15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.  

16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

 17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.  

18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.  

19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 

20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.  

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21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.  

22 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

23 Lamech said to his wives:

“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
24 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.”

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”  

26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

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This is a particularly bizarre chapter.  Adam and Eve have sex, and we almost immediately advance many years down the line to a period when their two sons, Cain and Abel, are presumably already in adulthood.  Abel is a shepherd, while Cain is a farmer.  Both boys offer up the fruits of their labor to God, but God only likes the bloody carcasses presented to him by Abel, and this makes Cain angry.  Is God disdainful of vegetarians?  Does he enjoy animal sacrifice?  

In any case, the humiliation is enough for Cain to march over to his brother and murder him.  God comes to Cain some time later, and in a fashion that does not scream 'omniscience,' he asks what has become of Abel.  Though the murderer tries to evade blame at first, God hears Abel's blood talking to him about the crime and punishes Cain for it.  This leads me to ask a few questions: first, why didn't God see the murder coming and stop it?  Second, why did he have to ask Cain what happened; wouldn't he have already known?  Third, where is Abel's soul?  Did the poor kid get sent to Hell just because he was a murder victim?  And if not, why can't God simply talk to his soul to find out what happened, instead of putting his ear to the bloody ground for the details?

As the Bible does not address these issues, we will move on.  God punishes Cain and declares him a fugitive and a wanderer on the Earth (11-12).  Cain complains about his punishment and warns God that all other men will kill him because he is accursed, but God puts a 'mark' on him to avoid that sort of business altogether.  The point arises: who exactly is God afraid will kill Cain?  Adam and Eve could probably just be told not to do it, and besides those two, what other men exist on the Earth at this time?  

 Despite this curse applied to the world's first murderer, in just a few verses (16-17), Cain settles down with a wife and has kids of his own.  My definition of fugitive and wanderer must be completely different from God's, because it typically does not involve city-building and child-rearing.  Another troubling question is where exactly Cain found a wife, when his mother, father, and dead brother are supposedly the only humans on Earth at the time.  Cain is said to have settled in the land of Nod, outside the presence of the Lord.  In every bit of religious dogma I have ever encountered, God is said to exist everywhere, to see and hear and know everything.  Where is this land, east of Eden, where his presence cannot reach?   

At this point the chapter devolves into a boring list of who-begat-who, like an ancient gossip tabloid.  Of interest is Lamech, Cain's great-great-great-great-grandson, who happened to think one wife too few.  He is the first in a very long line of Biblical polygamists, but God does not seem to mind.  

In the middle of all this hot and horny begetting, we suddenly discover that Lamech is boasting to his pair of wives about having murdered a dude himself.  God does not sweep down and punish him as he did Cain, but Lamech seems to think that anyone who raises a hand against him in punishment for his crime will incur the wrath of God, just as they would have had they done something about Cain's immorality.  

Even though we have gone through a period of six generations or so, even though we are being told about the exploits of their sixth-great grandchildren, the Bible expects us to believe that geriatric Adam and elderly Eve hopped back onto their straw mattress and pumped out another kid, though both would be several hundred years old by this point.  From this unlikely union another boy named Seth was born.  

Seth's son Enos apparently got people praying to God or something (26), but from all the personal communication between God and individuals already discussed above, the timeline seems a little off.    Is Cain not 'calling upon the name of the Lord' when he complains about his punishment?  Were Abel and his brother not 'calling upon the name of the Lord' by offering sacrifices to him?  Did Adam and Eve not 'call upon the name of the Lord' when they spoke to him about their criminal and unacceptable eating of fruits?  

Apparently not.