Genesis 4:1-16

International Standard Version

Cain and Abel

4 Later, Adam^[a] had sexual relations with^[b] his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have given birth to^[c] a male child—the Lord.”^{[d] 2} And she did it again, giving birth to his brother Abel. Abel shepherded flocks and Cain became a farmer.^[e]

³ Later, after a while, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit that he had harvested,^{[f] 4} while Abel brought the best parts^[g] of some of the firstborn from his flock. The Lord looked favorably upon Abel and his offering, ⁵ but he did not look favorably upon Cain and his offering.

When Cain became very upset and^[h] depressed, ⁶ the Lord asked Cain, “Why are you so upset? Why are you^[i] depressed? ⁷ If you do what is appropriate,^[j] you’ll be accepted, won’t you? But if you don’t do what is appropriate,^[k] sin is crouching near your doorway, turning toward you. Now as for you, will you take dominion over it?”^[l]

⁸ Instead, Cain told his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the wilderness.”^[m] When they were outside in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ Later, the Lord asked Cain, “Where’s your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

¹⁰ “What did you do?” God^[n] asked. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you’re more cursed than the ground, which has opened^[o] to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² Whenever you work the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you, and you’ll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive.”

¹³ “My punishment is too great to bear,” Cain told the Lord. ¹⁴ “You’re driving me from the soil^[p] today. I’ll be hidden from you, and I’ll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive. In the future,^[q] whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ The Lord told him, “This won’t happen, because whoever kills you^[r] will suffer seven times the vengeance.” Then the Lord placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him. ¹⁶ After this, Cain left the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.