Genesis 4:8-16

New Living Translation

⁸One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.”^[a] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

⁹Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”

“I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

¹⁰But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! ¹¹Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. ¹²No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment^[b] is too great for me to bear! ¹⁴You have banished me from the land and from your presence; you have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”

¹⁵The Lord replied, “No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. ¹⁶So Cain left the Lord’s presence and settled in the land of Nod,^[c] east of Eden.

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Footnotes

4:8 As in Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek and Syriac versions, and Latin Vulgate; Masoretic Text lacks “Let’s go out into the fields.”
4:13 Or My sin.
4:16 Nod means “wandering.”