The Examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable^[a] sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith^[b] he still speaks.^(A)

³ In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,^{(A) 4} and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,^{(B) 5} but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.^(C)

Love One Another

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.^{(A) 12} We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(A)

³⁵ so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

¹⁰ And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!^(A)

¹¹ Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish in Korah’s rebellion.^(A)

²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.^(A)