⁴⁵ until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, ^(A)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^(B)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(C)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

⁴ When ^(A)the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, ^(B)“No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, ^(C)Justice^[a] has not allowed him to live.”

⁶ And your servant had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ And now the whole clan has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.’ And so they would ^(A)destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor ^(B)remnant on the face of the earth.”

³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”

⁵ And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: ^(A)from every beast I will require it and ^(B)from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

⁸ Cain spoke to Abel his brother.^[a] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and ^(A)killed him. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, ^(B)“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 ^(C)is crying to me from the ground. ¹¹ And now ^(D)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 ^(E)punishment is greater than I can bear.^{[b] 14} Behold, ^(F)you have driven me today away from the ground, and ^(G)from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, ^(H)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 ^(I)sevenfold.” And the Lord ^(J)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,^[c] east of Eden.