thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, be thou cursed above all the cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt wound his heel.
16 ¶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and (the suffering of) thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and for thy husband shall be thy desire, but he shall rule over thee.
17 ¶ And unto Adam[1] he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed be the ground for thy sake; in pain shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
18 And thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the field.[2]
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And the man called his wife's name Eve[3] (Chavvah); because she was the mother of all living (Chay).
21 And the Lord God made unto Adam and to his wife coats of skins, and clothed them.*
22 ¶ And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.[4]
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flaming[5] sword which revolveth, to guard the way to the tree of life.
CHAPTER IV.
1 ¶ And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten[6] a man from the Lord.
2 And she bore again, his brother, Abel;[7] and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And it came to pass in process of time, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel—he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fattest[8] thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering;
4 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect; and it was very displeasing to Cain, and his countenance fell.
5 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
6 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door; and unto thee is its desire, but thou canst rule over it.
7 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
8 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, 1 know not; am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now be thou cursed from[9] the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand:
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall
- ↑ Adam signifies "man," as one taken from the ground; Adam, man, being derived from Adamah, ground.
- ↑ The curse was directed to Adam, that he should be compelled to obtain his food by constant toil, whereas before sinning, only slight exertions were required to gather what grew spontaneously from the ground.
- ↑ Signifying "living."
- ↑ Evidently an elliptical sentence; meaning, that since man might partake of the fruit of the tree of life should he remain in Eden, it was the intention of the Deity to banish him, which banishment is then recorded in the next verses.
- ↑ Literally, "the flame of the sword," &c.
- ↑ קין Kayin, from קנה Kanah. Philippson, after Rashi, renders את by "with," i. e. "the aid of."
- ↑ Correctly, "Habel."
- ↑ Eng. ver. and others, "the fat," &c.
- ↑ "More than the ground."—Salomon.
