Genesis 4:8-16

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁸ Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.”^[a] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.^{(A) 9} Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!^{(B) 11} And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”^{(C) 13} Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! ¹⁴ Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”^{(D) 15} Then the Lord said to him, “Not so!^[b] Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.^{(E) 16} Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,^[c] east of Eden.