Genesis 4:9-12 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 4:9-12

We have here a full account of the trial and condemnation of the first murderer. Civil courts of judicature not being yet erected for this purpose, as they were afterwards (Gen. 9:6), God himself sits Judge; for he is the God to whom vengeance belongs, and who will be sure to make inquisition for blood, especially the blood of saints. Observe, I. The arraignment of Cain: The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? Some think Cain was thus examined the next sabbath after the murder was... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:9

And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother ?.... Perhaps this was said to him the next time he came to offer, he not being with him: this question is put, not as being ignorant where he was, but in order to bring Cain to a conviction and confession of his sin, to touch his conscience with it, and fill it with remorse for it; and, for the aggravation of it, observes the relation of Abel to him, his brother: and he said, I know not ; which was a downright lie; for he must know... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:10

And he said ,.... Not Cain, the last speaker, but the Lord God: what hast thou done ? what an heinous crime hast thou committed! how aggravated is it! I know what thou hast done; thou hast slain thy brother, thine own, thine only brother, a holy, righteous, and good man, who never gave thee any offence, or any just occasion of shedding his innocent blood: this he said as knowing what he had done, and to impress his mind with a sense of the evil, and to bring him to a confession of it,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:11

And now art thou cursed from the earth ,.... From receiving benefit by it, and enjoying the fruits of it as before, and from having a settled dwelling in it, as is afterwards explained: which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand ; the blood of his brother, which was shed by his own hand, was received and sucked into the earth, where it was spilt, through the pores of it, and drank up and covered, so as not to be seen; in which it was as it were more humane... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:12

When thou tillest the ground ,.... Which was the business he was brought up in and followed, Genesis 4:2 . it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength ; the earth had been cursed for Adam's sin, and was not so fruitful as in its original state; and now it was cursed again for Cain's sin; not the whole earth, but that part which belonged to Cain, and was cultivated by him; and so it must be supposed to be cursed, not only in the spot where he had been settled, but in every... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:10

The voice of thy brother's blood - It is probable that Cain, having killed his brother, dug a hole and buried him in the earth, hoping thereby to prevent the murder from being known; and that this is what is designed in the words, Thy brother's blood crieth unto me From The Ground - which hath opened her mouth to receive it from thy hand. Some think that by the voice of thy brother's blood the cries of Abel's widow and children are to be understood, as it is very probable that he was father... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:12

A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be - Thou shalt be expelled from the presence of God, and from thy family connections, and shalt have no fixed secure residence in any place. The Septuagint render this στενων και τρεμων εση , thou shalt be groaning and trembling upon the earth - the horror of thy crime shall ever haunt thee, and thou shalt never have any well-grounded hope that God will remit the punishment thou deservest. No state out of endless perdition can be considered more awful... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:9

Verse 9 9.Where is Abel ? They who suppose that the father made this inquiry of Cain respecting his son Abel, enervate the whole force of the instruction which Moses here intended to deliver; namely, that God, both by secret inspiration, and by some extraordinary method, cited the parricide (242) to his tribunal, as if he had thundered from heaven. For, what I have before said must be firmly maintained that, as God now speaks until us through the Scriptures, so he formerly manifested himself to... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:10

Verse 10 10.What hast thou done ? The voice of thy brother’s blood Moses shows that Cain gained nothing by his tergiversation. God first inquired where his brother was; he now more closely urges him, in order to extort an unwilling confession of his guilt; for in no racks or tortures of any kind is there so much force to constrain evildoers, as there was efficacy in the thunder of the Divine voice to cast down Cain in confusion to the ground. For God no longer asks whether he had done it; but,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:11

Verse 11 11.And now art thou cursed from the earth. Cain, having been convicted of the crime, judgment is now pronounced against him. And first, God constitutes the earth the minister of his vengeance, as having been polluted by the impious and horrible parricide: as if he had said, ‘Thou didst just now deny to me the murder which thou hast committed, but the senseless earth itself will demand thy punishment.’ He does this, however, to aggravate the enormity of the crime, as if a kind of... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 4:9-12

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:9

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:10

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:11

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 4:12

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:10

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:12

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:9

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:10

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 4:11

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