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1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. 9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. 13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. 16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. 19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. 25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
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[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:1-2
After his disobedience, after their loss of the garden, then it was that the practice of intercourse had its beginning. You see, before their disobedience they followed a life like that of angels, and there was not mention of intercourse.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 18.12
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:1
"Now, Adam had intercourse with his wife Eve." Consider when this happened. After their disobedience, after their loss of the garden, then it was that the practice of intercourse had its beginning. You see, before their disobedience they followed a life like that of the angels, and there was no mention of intercourse. How could there be, when they were not subject to the needs of the body? So, at the outset and from the beginning the practice of virginity was in force, but when through their indifference disobedience came on the scene and the ways of sin were opened, virginity took its leave for the reason that they had proved unworthy of such a degree of good things, and in its place the practice of intercourse took over for the future. Accordingly, consider, I ask you, dearly beloved, how great the esteem of virginity, how elevated and important a thing it is, surpassing human nature and requiring assistance from on high. I mean, for proof that those who practice virginity with enthusiasm demonstrate in the body the characteristics of incorporeal powers, listen to the words of Christ to the Sadducees: when they were discussing the question of resurrection and wanted to learn his view, they asked, "Master, there were seven brothers of our acquaintance. The eldest married and died without children, leaving his wife to his brother. The second died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother; likewise with the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. So at the resurrection to which of the seven will the wife belong? After all, she belonged to them all." So what reply did Christ make to them? "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God: at the resurrection, far from marrying or being given in marriage, they will be like angels." Do you see how those who have followed the vocation to virginity for the love of Christ imitate the life of angels through treading the earth and being clad in a body? I mean, the greater and more elevated the task, so much and even greater the laurels, the rewards and the good things promised to those who give evidence of the practice of good works along with this vocation.
"Now, Adam had intercourse with his wife Eve," the text says, "and she conceived and gave birth to Cain." Since sin had come on the scene through the act of disobedience, and the sentence had the effect of making them liable to death, for the future God in his inventiveness arranged for the continuance of the human race according to his wisdom by allowing for the propagation of the race through intercourse.
"She said, 'I have gained a human being, thanks to God.'" See how the imposition of the punishment brought the woman to her senses? She attributes the child she bore not to a natural process but to God, and displays her own gratitude. Do you see how the punishment proved an occasion of admonition to them? The text says, remember, "'I have gained a human being, thanks to God." ' It was not nature, she is saying, that presented me with the child; instead, grace from above has given him to me.
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:1
(Chapter 4, Verse 1) And she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and said, I have gained a man from God. Cain, meaning acquisition or possession, is interpreted as κτῆσις in Greek, and expressing its etymology, it is said, Canithi, meaning possession of a man from God.

(Ver. 4.) And God looked upon Abel and upon his offerings: but upon Cain and his offerings he did not look. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So Cain knew that God had accepted his brother's offerings and rejected his own, unless that interpretation which Theodotion has given is true. And the Lord was angry with Abel and his offering: but with Cain and his offering he was not angry. But fire used to come from heaven to devour the sacrifice: and we read of it in the dedication of the temple under Solomon, and when Elijah built an altar on Mount Carmel (2 Chronicles 7:1; 1 Kings 18:38).

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:1-2
Note that the name Cain means “ownership,” which explains what was said at the time of his birth by his father or mother: “I have come into possession of a man through God.”

Source: City of God 15.17
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:1-2
Cain was followed by Abel, who was killed by his brother and served as the first prophetic symbol of the City of God. He was like an alien on earth, destined to suffer cruel persecutions at the hands of the wicked men who can properly be called natives of earth because they love this world as their home and find their happiness in the worldly felicity of the earthly city.

Source: City of God 15.15
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:1
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying: I have acquired a man through God. Henceforth, after the delights of paradise and the guilt of the first transgression, the events of this world and mortal life are narrated, when the first-created, who had been made immortal, after receiving the condition of dying, began to generate mortal offspring from themselves, all conceived in iniquity and brought forth from the womb in sins. Cain is interpreted as possession, the reason for which name the mother herself explained when she said: I have acquired a man through God. And with this statement, our mother now teaches us with catholic discernment that although she bore a son subject to the sin of her transgression, nonetheless this which was born a man, that is, which possessed a soul and body, was a gift of divine creation and the first blessing.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 1022] Symeon the New Theologian on Genesis 4:1-2
Since Adam had been blinded in the eyes of his soul and had fallen from the life imperishable, he began to look with his physical eyes. He turned the vision of his eyes on visible objects with affectionate desire and “knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.” Such knowledge is in reality ignorance of all goodness, for had he not first fallen from the knowledge and contemplation of God he would not have been brought down to this knowledge.

Source: DISCOURSES 15.1
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:2
"She proceeded to give birth to his brother Abel." Since she proved to be grateful for the birth of the first child and acknowledged the former kindness, she enjoyed the good fortune of the second. Our Lord is like this, you see: when we display gratitude for previous good deeds and acknowledge the benefactor, he lavishes his gifts upon us more generously. Accordingly, because she attributed the birth to God, for that reason she receives another child. You see, the generation of children was the greatest consolation from then on, once mortality had come on the scene. For this reason, of course, the loving God at once and from the beginning reduced the severity of their punishment and stripped away the fearsome visage of death by favoring them with the propagation of children, foreshadowing, as it were, in this event an image of resurrection and ensuring that others would rise up in place of the fallen.
"Abel was a shepherd, whereas Cain was a tiller of the soil." Sacred Scripture taught us the occupations of each of the children and the fact that while one preferred tending flocks, the other tilled the soil.
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:2
Again, she bore his brother Abel. Abel is interpreted as grief or miserable, by which name from the earliest age was foreshadowed the condition of his lamentable untimely death. For, although precious is the death of his saints in the sight of the Lord, having tasted the cup of saving suffering, yet, as far as human view is concerned, it is sufficiently mournful, since we have so far departed from the innocence of the first condition that not even those who were first born on earth as brothers could have peace and concord between themselves, but one envied the other and killed him, while they still existed alone with their parents as masters of the whole world; already clearly foreshadowing that saints in this life would be oppressed by the reprobate and suffer deaths: in this also to be noted that Cain was born first in this life, but Abel was taken away first from this life, because indeed this life is properly the life of the wicked, from which they are precipitated into eternal death; but truly the life of the elect is properly the future life, to which that they may come more happily, they are daily put to death in this life and are considered as sheep for the slaughter.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 50] Philo of Alexandria on Genesis 4:3-5
(60) Why Cain after some days offers up the first-fruits of his fruits, but when it is said that "Abel offered up first-fruits of the first-born of his flock and of the fat," "after some days" is not added? (#Ge 4:3-4). Moses here intimates the difference between a lover of himself, and one who is thoroughly devoted to God; for the one took to himself the first-fruits of his fruits, and very impiously looked upon God as worthy only of the secondary and inferior offerings; for the expression, "after some days," implies that he did not do so immediately; and when it is said that he offered of the fruits, that intimates that he did not offer of the best fruits which he had, and herein displays his iniquity. But the other, without any delay, offered up the first-born and eldest of all his flocks, in order that in this the Father might not be treated unworthily.

(61) Why, when he had begun with Cain, he still mentions him here in the second place, when he says: "And God had respect unto Abel and unto his offerings; but unto Cain and unto his sacrifices he paid no attention?" (#Ge 4:5). In the first place, because the good man, who is by nature first, is not at first perceived by the outward senses of any man except in his own turn, and by people of virtuous conduct. Secondly, because the good and the wicked man are two distinct characters; he accepts the good man, seeing that he is a lover of what is good, and an eager student of virtue; but he rejects and regards with aversion the wicked man, presuming that he will be prone to that side by the order of nature. Therefore he says here with exceeding fitness, that God had regard, not to the offerings, but to those who offered them, rather than to the gifts themselves; for men have regard to and regulate their approbation by the abundance and richness of offerings, but God looks at the sincerity of the soul, having no regard to ambition or illusion of any kind.

Source: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I
[AD 99] Clement of Rome on Genesis 4:3-8
Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and has become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. [Wisdom 2:24]

For thus it is written: "And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice unto God; and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep, and of the fat thereof. And God had respect to Abel and to his offerings, but Cain and his sacrifices He did not regard. And Cain was deeply grieved, and his countenance fell. And God said to Cain, Why are you grieved, and why is your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace: your offering returns to yourself, and you shall again possess it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." [Genesis 4:3-8] You see, brethren, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother. Through envy, also, our father Jacob fled from the face of Esau his brother [Genesis 27:41-45]. Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage. [Genesis 37:18-28] Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, "Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" [Exodus 2:14] On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp. [Numbers 12:14-15] Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to Hades, through the sedition which they excited against God's servant Moses. [Numbers 16:33] Through envy, David not only underwent the hatred of foreigners, but was also persecuted by Saul king of Israel. [1 Samuel 21:10-15]

Source: Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapters 3-4
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Genesis 4:3-5
In the case of Cain his wickedness did not begin when he killed his brother. For even before that God, who knows the heart, had no regard for Cain and his sacrifice. But his baseness was made evident when he killed Abel.

Source: ON PRAYER 29.18
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:3-5
Abel was very discerning in his choice of offerings, whereas Cain showed no such discernment. Abel selected and offered the choicest of his firstborn and of his fat ones, while Cain either offered young grains or certain fruits that are found at the same time as the young grains. Even if his offering had been smaller than that of his brother, it would have been as acceptable as the offering of his brother, had he not brought it with such carelessness. They made their offerings alternately; one offered a lamb of his flock, the other the fruits of the earth. But because Cain had taken such little regard for the first offering that he offered, God refused to accept it in order to teach Cain how he was to make an offering.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.2.1
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:3-5
Cain was angry because the offering of his brother had been accepted. Cain became angry on account of the fire that had come down and distinguished between the offerings. His face became gloomy because there was laughter in the eyes of his parents and his sisters when his offering was rejected. They had seen that Cain’s offering had been placed in the midst of the fire and yet the fire did not touch it.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.3.3
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:3-5
There were two reasons for his annoyance: not just that he alone had been rejected but also that his brother’s gift had been accepted.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 18.21
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:3
Consider how the Lord of nature added knowledge to conscience. After all, who brought this to our understanding? It was none other than knowledge associated with conscience. The text says, "He brought an offering of the fruits of the earth to the Lord." He knew and understood that he should offer from his own possessions some produce to God as to his master. not because God needs them, but for the purpose of demonstrating his gratitude as being himself a beneficiary of such kindness. God, you see, is proof against need, and depends on nothing we have to offer; but in his ineffable love he shows considerateness for us, and for the sake of our salvation he allows these things to happen so that knowledge of the Lord may be for the human race a school of virtue.
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:3-5
[The pagans say, “The Christians] censure the ceremonies of sacrifice, the victims, incense and the rest, which are used in temple worship. Yet the same ceremonies of sacrifice were originated by themselves or by the god they worship, in primitive times, when a god was assumed to need their offerings of first fruits.” This question is evidently derived from that passage in our Scriptures that tells of Cain making an offering to God of the fruits of the earth and Abel of the firstlings of his flocks. We answer that the conclusion to be drawn from it is that sacrifice is a very ancient custom, because our true and sacred Books warn us that it is not to be offered except to the one true God. But God does not need sacrifices, as is most clearly expressed in the same sacred Books: “I said to the Lord, thou art my God, for thou hast no need of my goods,” because in accepting or refusing or receiving them he is looking only to man’s good. God does not derive any benefit from our worship, but we do.

Source: LETTERS 102.3
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:3
It came to pass after many days that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground: Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. It is clearly shown that both brothers had faith in God, both either naturally admonished or taught by their parents, knew that gifts should be offered to God, and that the guilt of their father's transgression should be washed away by sacrifices offered to Him: but because they did not offer with an equal mind, their offerings were not equally accepted. For I do not think that Cain sinned in that he either worked the work of a farmer or offered gifts to God from the fruits of the ground, but that he worked with less perfect piety in the care of the flesh, and approached the offering of gifts to God with less perfect devotion. Finally, Noah, a farmer, also worked the land and planted a vineyard: and Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, offered bread and wine from the fruits of the land. Therefore, Cain was not rejected because of the kind of offering. He indeed offered to God from what he himself was accustomed to live by; but he was rejected along with his gifts by Him who looks into the hearts, because of the impious mind of the offerer, as the following words show when it is said:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:3
For Cain offered gifts to the Lord from the fruits of the earth. For that people believed they pleased the Lord through good works, which they pursued for the sake of earthly reward. Or certainly, they offered gifts from the fruits of the earth when that people believed themselves to be justified through earthly circumcision, earthly Sabbath, earthly unleavened bread, and earthly Passover, despising the righteousness of faith which is in Christ.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:4
It was not idly or in vain that in beginning this sermon we taught your good selves that our Lord does not recognize differences in appearance but takes account of intentions and rewards the will. Here, too, to be sure, notice this happening. Accordingly, let us attend with precision, dearly beloved, to the text and see what Scripture says about Cain on the one hand and Abel on the other, and let us not pass it by heedlessly. I mean, Sacred Scripture says nothing idly or by chance; instead, even if it happens to be a syllable or a single jot, it has some treasure concealed in it. Such, after all, is the nature of all things spiritual. So what does the text say? "In the course of time Cain brought an offering of the fruits of the earth to the Lord, and Abel also for his part brought an offering of the firstborn of his flock, and in fact the fattest of them." The meaning of the verse is clear even from the reading to those already capable of following more closely. But since we should exercise our concern in general for everyone (spiritual teaching, after all, recognizes no distinction), come now, let us expose the meaning of the words more clearly and rehearse these same words again. "Cain," the text says, "brought an offering of the fruits of the earth to the Lord"; then, wanting to teach us about Abel as well, Sacred Scripture says that he for his part also brought his offering [155] from his occupation and his shepherding. "He, for his part, also brought an offering," the text says, remember, "of the firstborn of his flock, and in fact the fattest of them." Notice how it hints to us of the piety of this man's attitude, and the fact that he did not casually offer any one of his sheep, but "one of the firstborn," that is, from the valuable and special ones. In Cain's case, on the contrary, nothing of the kind is suggested; rather, the fact that he brought "an offering of the fruits of the earth," as if to say, whatever came to hand, without any display of zeal or precise care.

I repeat, and I shall not cease to make the point: God accepts our offerings not because he needs what we have to offer but because he wants our gratitude to be demonstrated through them as well. In other words, the person who makes an offering to God and offers him something of his own, and who calls to mind the difference in nature and the fact that a human being has been granted such a great honor, should give as good an account of himself as possible and offer the choicest gifts. But notice in this case, I ask you, dearly beloved: here you have the opportunity to contemplate what behooves you, namely, that the person who through indifference betrayed his own welfare duly pays the penalty. I mean, it wasn't a case of one man having a teacher and the other having a counsellor and adviser: each had instructions from his own conscience, and being moved by the intelligence supplied to the human race from above he proceeded to make his offering, such as it was; but the difference in attitude that emerged and the mediocrity of choice caused one man's offering to be acceptable and the other's to be spurned.

"God took notice of Abel and his conscience. Aftthis case is fulfilled the saying in the gospel that the first will be last and the last first.'-~ I mean, see how the one who enjoyed priority belonging to the firstborn and consequently made his offering first was shown to be inferior to his brother since he made it unworthily: as both presented their offerings, Sacred Scripture says, "God took notice of Abel and his gifts." What does that mean, "He took notice"? He accepted, he approved of the attitude, he rewarded the choice, he was satisfied (so to say) with what was done. You see, we speak about God and presume to open our mouth about that pure nature, yet being human we would have no choice but to understand these things through language. Notice, however, this remarkable feature: "God took notice of Abel and his gifts," the text says; it calls the offering of sheep gifts on account of the importance, the choice quality, the untainted appearance of what was offered. Accordingly, God took notice of him for the reason that he had made the offering with a pure intention, and of his gifts for the reason not only that they were free of imperfection but that they were in every respect clearly precious, both from the viewpoint of the offerer's intention and from the fact of their being the firstborn and in fact specially selected from them, among the fattest of them and the very prize ones.
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:4
And the Lord looked with favor upon Abel and his offering, but upon Cain and his offering He did not look with favor. For it does not say: And the Lord looked with favor upon the offerings of Abel and then upon him; but upon the offerings of Cain and then upon him He did not look with favor. It first testifies that the person of the offerer was accepted or not accepted by God, then the gifts were regarded or not regarded. For men are often appeased by the gifts of those with whom they were offended; but God, who is the discerner of thoughts and intentions of the heart, is pleased by no gift more than the pious devotion of the offerer: when He has approved the purity of our mind, then He will also accept the vows of our prayers or works.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:4
Abel also offered from the firstborn of his flock and their fat. For the Lord, interceding with the Father on behalf of the saints, offers their vows to Him according to the form of the assumed humanity, that is, good works and the fat of inner love. For these are indeed the firstborn of his flock and their fat. The Lord looks upon Abel, saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Matt. XVII, 5). He looks also upon his gifts, because the life of the elect which he offers to Him gratefully, God the Father accepts, and as if by fire from heaven He ignites his sacrifice, because He inflames with the power of His spirit those who have taken care to mortify themselves for the Lord, so that they may more abundantly burn in the heavenly regions, indeed so that they may become wholly heavenly. But to Cain and his gifts, He does not look, because rebuking the carnal works of the Jews, He says through the prophet: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of goats (Isa. I, 11). And a little later: Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, be clean, that is, through faith in the grace of Christ. Cain is enraged against his brother's piety, nor does he, rebuked by the Lord, repent from his fury conceived out of envy. How much the Jews raged against the Lord and the grace of the New Testament out of jealousy, how many times they persisted malignantly in their undertakings when corrected or admonished by Him, is sufficiently revealed by the Gospel history. They fittingly correspond to what is said of Cain, for their countenance fell: for they could not gaze upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. For they had lost that joy of divine grace, of which the righteous, glorying, say: The light of your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord; You have put gladness in my heart (Ps. IV, 7).

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:5
Since Abel made his offering with a proper attitude and pure intention, "God took notice," the text saysÐthat is, he accepted, he was satisfied, he approved of them; but it called the offerings gifts, by this means dignifying the attitude of the offerer. "And whereas to Cain and his offerings he paid no heed." Notice the precision of Sacred Scripture: by the phrase "he paid no heed" it shows us the rejection of what was offered, and by calling what was offered from the soil offerings he teaches us something else again. I mean, see how he shows us through the very events and terms that the Lord wants all these things to be done by us so that the kind of intention we have should be made clear through the actions we take, and so that we may be in a position to know that we are subject to a Lord and Creator who brought us from nothing to being. In other words, in naming the sheep gifts and calling the things from the earth offerings, Sacred Scripture teaches us that neither the herding of sheep nor the collection of fruits of the earth is what is looked for by the Lord but simply the disposition of one's attitude. Hence in this case, too, one man proved acceptable with his gift on this score, whereas the other was rejected along with his gift on that account. The verse, "God took notice of Abel and his gifts, whereas to Cain and his offering he paid no heed," let us take in a sense befitting God. I mean, the intention in the words is that he communicated to them the awareness that while he was satisfied with one man's choice, he took umbrage at the other's attitude.
Such, however, is the way God does things; let us now see what follows. "This annoyed Cain very much and his face fell." What is the meaning of the words, "This annoyed Cain very much"? There were two reasons for his annoyance, not just that he alone had been rejected, but also that his brother's gift had been accepted. "This annoyed Cain," the text says, "and his face fell." What was it that annoyed him? Both things annoyed him, the Lord's ignoring his offering and his brother's gift being welcomed. So it was necessary that he recognize his guilt and adjust the error of his ways. After all, our Lord is loving, and when we err he does not turn away from us because of our error as if we continued in the error on the contrary, he keeps no record of it. In order that you may learn this with precision and see the indescribable magnitude of the loving kindness, consider in these present events the exceeding degree of his goodness and the extent of his longsuffering. I mean, when he saw Cain annoyed unreasonably and, so to say, at the point of drowning in the waves of his annoyance, he did not ignore him; instead, that love which he had shown for his father in giving him the opportunity for excuse and opening the way to renewed confidence in the words, "Where are you?" despite that damaging fall the very same love he now demonstrates towards the man who had proved so ungrateful, and stretches out his hand to this person who was at the point of tumbling down the cliff, as you might say, desirous as he was of offering him the opportunity to adjust the error of his ways. So he says to him,
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:5
And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. How did Cain know that the Lord had looked favorably upon Abel and his offerings, but had turned away his face from himself and his offerings, unless, as some have interpreted, the Lord had set fire to Abel and his sacrifice, but had not set fire to Cain and his sacrifice, that is, by sending fire from the heavens, He accepted Abel's offering, as we often read that this happened to holy men who offered. Cain, on the other hand, had to consume his own sacrifice by fire. For this is what the Apostle seems to mean when he says: By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain to God, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, with God bearing witness to his gifts (Hebrews 11:4). Therefore, God testified to Abel's offerings by fire, by accepting them from the heavens, through which we are also taught by the Apostle's testimony that Abel's offering was made acceptable to God by his faith's devotion, and on the contrary, we must understand that Cain was rejected because he did not serve his Creator with complete faith.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:6-7
God said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your face gloomy?” Instead of being filled with anger, you ought to be filled with distress. Instead of your face being gloomy, tears ought to be flowing from your eyes. “If you do well, I will accept it.” Notice then that it was not because of the small size of Cain’s offering that it was rejected. It was not accepted because of his spitefulness and his lack of good will. “If you do well, I will accept it,” even though I did not accept it before, and it will be accepted along with the chosen offering of your brother even though it was not accepted before. “But if you do not do well, sin is couching at the first door.” Abel will listen to you through his obedience, for he will go with you to the plain. There you will be ruled over by sin, that is, you shall be completely filled with it. But instead of doing well so that the offering that had been rejected might be credited to Cain as acceptable, he then made an offering of murder to that One to whom he had already made an offering of negligence.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.4.1-3
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:6-7
God wishes to defuse the wild frenzy and remove the anger by means of his words. You see, he observed the stages of Cain’s thinking and realized the savagery of his deadly intention; so he intends at this early stage to sedate his thinking and bring repose to his mind by placing his brother subject to him and not undermining his authority. But even despite such great concern and such potent remedies, Cain gained nothing from the experience. Such was the degree of difference in their attitudes and the excess of evil intent.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 18.24
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:6
Consider, I ask you, dearly beloved, the ineffable considerateness in his care when he saw Cain under assault, so to speak, from the passion of envy, see how out of fidelity to his own goodness he applied various remedies to him so that he might be quickly plucked from the water and not be drowned. "'For what reason are you annoyed? For what reason has your face fallen?"' Why on earth, he is saying, are you overcome with such resentment as to show the extent of your displeasure on your face? "'For what reason has your face fallen?'" Why has this event so affected you? Why have you not considered what your obligation was? You weren't making your offering to a human being, capable of being deceived, were you. Did you not realize that I wasn't looking for some offering or other of yours, but for the pure intention of the offerer? "'For what reason are you annoyed? For what reason has your face fallen? Is it not true that, even if you make your offering correctly but fail to choose the offering correctly, you commit sin?" That is to say, while your having the idea of making an offering was commendable, still your not choosing the offering correctly led to the rejection of the offering. I he one who makes an offering to God, you know, must show great care in the choice, and the greater the difference between the recipient and the offerer, the greater the distinction you should lend to your choice. You, however, gave no thought to these matters but simply offered whatever came to hand; hence they in turn could not be judged acceptable. You see, just as your intention in making the offering did not make allowance for the difference in status, and so caused the offering presented by you to be rejected; in like manner, your brother's intention, which happened to be correct and revealed great care in the choice, caused his gifts to be acceptable. Still, I am not demanding a penalty for the error but merely highlighting the sin and offering you advice, provided you want to take it, mend your ways and not involve yourself in worse evils.
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:6
(Verse 6.) And the Lord said to Cain: Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. We are compelled to linger longer on each individual. For even now the meaning is very different in the Hebrew than in the translators of the Septuagint. For the Lord said to Cain: Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. And to you is his alliance: but you must rule over him more. But, he says: Why are you angry, and why are you tormented by envy towards your brother, with the bitterness of jealousy, you turn your face to the ground? If you do well, will not your sin be forgiven you? Or, as Theodotion says, will it be acceptable: that is, I will accept your offering, as I have accepted your brother's? But if you do evil, then sin will immediately sit before your doorstep, and you will be accompanied by such a guardian. But because you have free will, I advise you to not be conquered by sin, but to conquer sin. The mistake that the Septuagint interpreters made is this: that the word for sin, which is 'Attath' in Hebrew, is masculine gender, but in Greek it is feminine gender. And those who translated it, translated it with the masculine gender (as it was in Hebrew).

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:6
And the Lord said to him: Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door? Why, he says, are you angry, and why are you tortured with envy of your brother, and you cast your eyes down to the ground? If you do well, if you offer your sacrifice with a pure heart, will you not be accepted, with the Lord looking favorably upon you and your sacrifice? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and by having such a doorkeeper, you will always enter and exit with him accompanying you, instead of the Lord guarding your going in and coming out, just as it is said of wisdom: Whoever rises early to seek her will not toil, for he will find her sitting at his doors (Wisdom 6:15). And again: Because she goes about seeking those worthy of her and graciously shows herself to them on their ways, and meets them with all providence (Wisdom 6:17).

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:7
So what is the upshot? You have sinned, and sinned grievously, but I am not imposing punishment for the sin; after all, I am loving, and "I do not want the death of the sinner, rather that he be converted and live." Since, then you have sinned, be at peace, lend calm to your thinking and rid yourself of the onset of the waves crashing around your mind, settle the storm lest you add to the previous sin another more grievous one and set your mind on something beyond repair. Don't give yourself into the clutches of the wicked demon. "'You have sinned, be at peace.'" He knew right from the outset that the future attack against his brother would take place, and by these words he checks it beforehand. You see, since he was God and knew the unspoken intentions of Cain's mind, he was aware of the movements of his heart; so with this earnest exhortation and the considerateness of his words he applies the appropriate remedy to him, doing everything in his power in case this man should reject the medication and fall headlong into the abyss of fratricide. "'You have sinned, be at peace." ' Don't think, he says, even if I have turned away from your offering owing to your incorrect attitude and have welcomed your brother's gift because of his sound choice, that I have stripped you of your pride of place and removed you from the distinction of firstborn. "'Be at peace," ' even if he has been deemed worthy of my regard and his gifts have proved acceptable, nevertheless "'his movement is towards you, and you will be superior to him.'" And so even after this sin I permit you to have the privilege of being firstborn, and I bid him be subject to your authority and your control.
See the Lord's loving kindness, how he wishes to defuse the wild frenzy and remove the anger by means of his words. You see, he observed the stages of his thinking and realized the savagery of his deadly intention; so he intends at this early stage to sedate his thinking and bring repose to his mind by placing his brother subject to him and not undermining his authority. But even despite such great concern and such potent remedies, Cain gained nothing from the experience. Such was the degree of difference in their attitudes and the excess of evil intent.
Lest, however, we prolong the sermon unduly and thus seem to tax the patience of your good selves, and lest our homily bore you to tears and be considered an ordeal to you, let us bring the talking to a halt at this stage. Let us commend this point to your warm attention, to avoid imitating conduct of that kind, bid good riddance to evil, and devote yourself to the Lord's command with great attention and with your whole heart, especially in the wake of such examples and others like them. I mean, in future none of us will be able to take refuge in ignorance. After all, if that manÐI mean CainÐwas not in a position to find anyone living before his time who did anything of that kind, and still was subjected to that severe and unbearable punishment, as you will later discover, what is it likely that we will sufferÐ we who have committed those sins and even worse ones despite such a generous measure of grace? Will it not assuredly be everlasting fire, the worm that does not die, gnashing of teeth, exterior darkness, a fiery hell and all those other ineluctable punishments awaiting us? I mean, there will be no grounds for excuse left for us, since we have been so much disposed to sloth and so remiss Surely, after all, we are all aware of what is to be done, and the sorts of things that should not be done? and that those who practice the former will enjoy the choicest of rewards, while those who fall victim to the latter will undergo condemnation to the most extreme of penalties?
Hence I beseech, entreat and implore you not to let our assembling here prove to be of no avail; instead, let attention to our words be followed by deeds, so that having the certainty that comes from a good conscience and being buoyed up already in our present situation with sound hope, we may be able to negotiate with ease this life's sea of prob- lems and put in at the harbor of God's loving kindness, thus attaining to those good things beyond all telling which the Lord has promised to those who love him, thanks to the grace and mercy of his only-begotten Son, to whom with the holy and adorable Spirit be glory, power and honor, now and forever, for all ages of ages. Amen.
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:7
But his desire shall be for you, and you shall rule over him. In accordance with the idiom of the Hebrew language, he substituted the indicative mood for the imperative, such as you have innumerable times: You shall love the Lord your God, you shall love your neighbor, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness (Deut. VI, 5), instead of saying: Love, and do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Therefore, he says, his desire shall be for you, and you shall rule over him; you, because you are of free will, I advise you to combat and restrain the desire of sin, and not let it grow over you anymore, but you shall rather rule over it more righteously by living correctly. This passage in the ancient translation reads thus: If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at your door; and its desire shall be for you, but you should rule over it. It is rightly offered to God, who alone must be sacrificed to. But it is not rightly divided when neither places nor times of the offerings nor the things themselves which are offered, nor who offers, nor those to whom the offering is distributed for eating are rightly discerned, so that here division means discernment. In what of these was Cain displeasing to the Lord, it cannot easily be found. But since the Apostle John, when speaking of these brothers, said, Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, but his brother’s were righteous (John III, 13); it is understood therefore that God did not look favorably upon his offering because he wrongly divided it, giving something of his to God, but keeping himself for himself, as all do who follow their own will, not God's, that is, living with a perverse, not a righteous heart; yet they offer to God a gift, with which they think He can be appeased, not to aid them in curing their bad desires, but to fulfill them. Rest, he says, for his desire will be for you, and you shall rule over him. Cease to be consumed by the sin of envy toward your brother, for the conversion of that same sin shall be for you, and your iniquity will rebound upon your own head, and you shall rule over it, having the power through the grace of divine help to repel the evil conceived in your heart. God spoke these things to Cain, in the manner in which He spoke to the first men through a subjected creature as if He was their companion in suitable form. But because he was admonished not inwardly but outwardly, nevertheless he carried out the deliberate crime of killing his brother even after the word of divine admonition or correction; for it follows.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:8
(Verse 8) And Cain said to his brother Abel. It is understood what the Lord said. Therefore, it is superfluous, what is found in the Samaritan and our volume, Let us go to the field.

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:8
Some understand the murderer Cain as the Jews’ lack of faith, the killing of Abel as the passion of the Lord and Savior, and the earth that opened its mouth and received Abel’s blood from Cain’s hand as the church (which received, in the mystery of its renewal, the blood of Christ poured out by the Jews). Undoubtedly those who have this understanding find water turned into wine, for they have a more sacred understanding of the saying of the sacred law.

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 1.14
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:8
And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go out into the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. And here the treachery of Cain and the innocence of Abel are both demonstrated: the innocence of Abel indeed, in that he simply followed his elder brother as a brother, being commanded, though his brother was inflamed with hostile hatred towards him; the treachery of Cain, in that he leads his brother outside to kill him, as if he could avoid divine presence in a more secret place: not considering, nor understanding that He who knew the secret things of his heart which reproved him, could also see wherever he withdrew and whatever he did in secret.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:8
Cain led his brother out into the field and killed him. The Jewish people led the Lord out of their city Jerusalem and crucified Him at Calvary; from both instances of this ordeal we are reminded typically to go out to the Lord outside the camp, bearing His reproach, that is, leaving behind the fellowship of the world and the company of the wicked, we should willingly endure all worldly contempt for the love of our heavenly homeland. When the Lord asked Cain where his brother Abel was, he replied that he did not know, and that it was not his duty to be his brother's keeper. Even to this day, when the faithful, the members of Christ, inquire of the Jews about Christ, they say they do not know. They would themselves have been keepers of Christ if they had been willing to receive and uphold the Christian faith. For whoever keeps Christ in their heart does not say, like Cain, that they do not know their brother, or that they are not their brother's keeper.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 1022] Symeon the New Theologian on Genesis 4:8
Why did Cain become a fratricide? Was it not by his evil will? He preferred himself to his Creator and followed after evil thoughts and so became abandoned to envy and committed murder.

Source: DISCOURSES 4.2
[AD 50] Philo of Alexandria on Genesis 4:9
(69) Why he who had slain his brother makes answer as if he were replying to a man; and says, "I do not know: am I my brother's keeper?" (#Ge 4:9). It is the opinion of an atheist to think that the eye of God does not penetrate through every thing, and behold all things at the same time; piercing not only through what is visible, but also through every thing which lurks in the deepest and bottomless unfathomable abysses. Suppose a person said to him, "How can you be ignorant where your brother is, and how is it that you do not know that, when as yet he is one out of the only four human beings which exist in the world? He being one with both his parents, and you his only brother." To this question the reply made is: "I am not my brother's keeper." O what a beautiful apology! And whose keeper and protector ought you to have been, rather than your brother's? But if you have excited your diligence to give effect to violence, and injury, and fraud, and homicide, which are the foulest and most abominable of actions, why did you consider the safety of your brother a secondary object?"

Source: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Genesis 4:9-10
We also know that what was said of Abel, when he was slain by the wicked murderer Cain, is suitable for all whose blood has been shed wickedly. Let us suppose that the verse “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” is said as well for each of the martyrs, the voice of whose blood cries to God from the ground.

Source: EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 50
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:9-10
God appeared to Cain with kindness, so that if he repented, the sin of murder that his fingers had committed might be effaced by the compunction on his lips. If he did not repent, however, there would be decreed on him a bitter punishment in proportion to his evil folly.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.6.1
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:9-10
But Cain was filled with wrath instead of compunction. To him who knows all, who asked him about his brother in order to win him back, Cain retorted angrily and said, “I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?” … What then would you say, Cain? Should Justice take vengeance for the blood that cried out to it? Or not? Did it not delay so that you might repent? Did Justice not distance itself from its own knowledge and ask you as if it did not know, so that you might confess? What it said to you did not please you, so you came to that sin to which it had warned you beforehand not to come.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.6.1; 3.7.1
[AD 465] Maximus of Turin on Genesis 4:9-10
The divine Scripture always cries out and speaks; hence God also says to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me.” Blood, to be sure, has no voice, but innocent blood that has been spilled is said to cry out not by words but by its very existence. [It makes] demands of the Lord not with eloquent discourse but with anger over the crime committed. It does not accuse the wrongdoer with words so much as bind him by the accusation of his own conscience. The evil deed may seem to be excused when it is explained away with words. But it cannot be excused if it is made present to the conscience. For in silence and without contradiction the wrongdoer’s conscience always convicts and judges him.

Source: SERMONS 88.1
[AD 500] Salvian the Presbyter on Genesis 4:9-10
Cain was at once the most wicked and foolish of men in believing that for committing the greatest of crimes it would be sufficient if he avoided other human witnesses. In fact God was the primary witness to his fratricide. Because of this, I think he then shared the opinion held by many today: that God pays no attention to earthly affairs; neither does he see those done by wicked men. There is no doubt that Cain, when summoned by the word of God after his misdeed, answered that he knew nothing of his brother’s murder. He believed God was so ignorant of what had been done that he thought this most deadly crime could be covered by a lie. But it turned out otherwise than he thought. When God condemned him, he realized that God, whom he thought had not seen his crime of murder, had seen him.

Source: GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.6
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:9
And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? Not as if ignorant, to learn from him, but as a judge questioning a defendant whom he will punish.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:9
He answered: I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? A foolish and equally arrogant answer; foolish, since he thought he could deceive Him who knew his sinful conscience and accused him of the crime of fratricide even before it was committed, as the knower of secrets; arrogant, since he denied being his brother's keeper in the manner of an obstinate servant, who by manifestation, if any danger threatened, should have taken care of his younger brother, and as the elder should have protected him from impending adversities.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:10
And He said to him: What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. The blood has a great voice, not only of Abel, but of all those slain for the Lord: for the voice of their blood is the very steadfastness of their faith, the very fervor of their charity, through which they merited to suffer for the Lord. It cries out to the Lord from the earth: for even if they have been slain by the impious in the hidden recesses of the earth as Abel was, nevertheless the very cause of their death is precious and clear in the sight of the internal Judge, justly demanding that those who were unjustly slain in their simplicity be crowned; and those who unjustly persecuted and slaughtered them be condemned. Therefore, the blood of the slain cries out to the Lord, and it is proven that their life before death cried out to Him as well, for they used to say: "I cried out with all my heart, hear me, O Lord; I will seek your justifications" (Psalm 118:145). For he indeed cries out to the Lord in his heart, who asks for great things, who prays for heavenly things, who hopes for the eternal, who seeks from Him not the glory of this world, but the keeping of His justifications. The Apostle teaches where this cry is born in the hearts of the just, saying: "God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father'" (Galatians 4:6); he says that the Spirit cries out in our hearts to the Father, because surely He Himself kindles this yearning to cry out. John reveals that the souls of martyrs possess this cry of pious devotion even after death when he says: "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained. They called out in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (Revelation 6:9-10). The souls of the saints cry out not out of hatred for their enemies, but out of love for justice, which they always learned to hunger and thirst for, as well as the desire to reclaim their body, so that the flesh they gave to death for the Lord might merit to stand before Him immortal and incorruptible. Great indeed is the voice of their cry, great is their desire for justice. As the blood of the saints cries out to the Lord, seeking just retribution for their unjust death, what befalls their persecutors is subsequently revealed, with the Lord saying to Cain:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:10
God said to Cain: What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. In the same way, the divine voice in the holy Scriptures reproaches the Jews. For Christ's blood speaks with a great voice on the earth, when all the nations respond Amen upon receiving it. This is the clear voice of the blood which the blood itself expresses from the mouths of the faithful redeemed by the same blood of which the Apostle rightly says to the faithful: You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). For the blood of Christ certainly speaks better than that of Abel, since the latter cried to the Lord in condemnation of the fratricide, but the former raises its voice to heaven for the salvation of Christ's faithful brethren.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Genesis 4:11-15
Do you, who have but lately come to the catechesis, wish to see the loving kindness of God? Would you want to behold the loving kindness of God and the extent of his forbearance? Listen to the story of [Cain].… Cain, the firstborn man, became a fratricide, from whose wicked designings first stemmed murder and envy. Yet consider his sentence for slaying his brother. “Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth.” Though the sin was great, the sentence was light.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 2:7
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Genesis 4:11-15
Indeed, it was not without reason that the mark was set upon Cain, that no one might kill him. Thus it was indicated that evil is not destroyed or removed from the earth. Cain was afraid that he might be killed, because he did not know how to flee. For evil is augmented and amassed by the practice of evil, and it exists without moderation or limit, fights through guile and deceit and is revealed by its deeds and by the blood of the slain, even as Cain also was revealed.

Source: FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 7.39
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Genesis 4:11-15
Like a slave, Cain received a mark and he could not escape death. Thus is the sinner a slave to fear, a slave to desire, a slave to greed, a slave to lust, a slave to sin, a slave to anger. Though such a man appears to himself free, he is more a slave than if he were under tyrants.

Source: LETTERS TO PRIESTS 54
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:11-15
The punishment of which God spoke seems to be excessively harsh, but rightly understood it gives us a glimpse of his great solicitude. God wanted men of later times to exercise self-control. Therefore, he designed the kind of punishment that was capable of setting Cain free from his sin. If God had immediately destroyed him, Cain would have disappeared, his sin would have stayed concealed, and he would have remained unknown to men of later times. But as it is, God let him live a long time with that bodily tremor of his. The sight of Cain’s palsied limbs was a lesson for all he met. It served to teach all men and exhort them never to dare do what he had done, so that they might not suffer the same punishment. And Cain himself became a better man again. His trembling, his fear, the mental torment that never left him, his physical paralysis kept him, as it were, shackled. They kept him from leaping again to any other like deed of bold folly. They constantly reminded him of his former crime. Through them he achieved greater self-control in his soul.

Source: AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 8.2.10
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:11-15
You see, since Cain perpetrated practically the same evil as the serpent, which like an instrument served the devil’s purposes, and as the serpent introduced mortality by means of deceit, in like manner Cain deceived his brother, led him out into open country, raised his hand in armed assault against him and committed murder. Hence, as God said to the serpent, “Cursed are you beyond all the wild animals of the earth,” so to Cain too when he committed the same evil as the serpent.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 19.11
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:11-15
Someone may say, “Behold he has confessed, and confessed with great precision”—but all to no avail, dearly beloved: the confession comes too late. You see, he should have done this at the right time when he was in a position to find mercy from the judge.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 19.3
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:11
Now therefore you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand: 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. According to the measure of sinners, the just judge also sets the measure of retribution: for Adam, who ate the forbidden fruit, is by no means himself cursed, but rather the earth is subjected to a curse in his work; not so much that it denies the fruits to the worker, but that it yields its fruits to the cultivator with labor and sweat; and so that the same labor could eventually be finished, and eternal rest entered. He is also subjected to the death of the flesh: which is done by a favor of benevolence, so that he would not always labor and suffer, as only those who cannot grasp how burdensome the life of this present age is would doubt. But Cain, though knowing the transgression of his parents and their condemnation, added to the same transgression a heavier guilt of perfidy, malice, murder, and lying, which he had inherited; hence he is also justly punished with a harsher penalty: first, that he himself should be cursed beyond the earth, which he had polluted with his brother's blood, previously clean; then, that he should sweat uselessly in working the earth, with no abundance of fruits responding to his labors: thirdly, that he should always be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, not daring to have settled abodes anywhere, or, as another translation has it, live trembling and lamenting on the earth. But he, having heard the penalty of his great curse, did not wish to ask for forgiveness, but doubling sins upon sins, thought his crime so great that it could not be forgiven by God. Finally, he responded to the Lord:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:11
Now therefore you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. He refers to the earth as the Church, for no other earth but she opens her mouth to taste in the mystery the blood of Christ that was shed by the hands of the Jewish people. Over this Church, the same people are accursed: for as much as she more closely adheres to the love of her Creator, so much more gravely does she understand the nation opposed to Him to be cursed, even if they, still in their pride, boast themselves as specially blessed.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:12
When you have worked it, it will not give you its fruits. The same people worked that land which the head of the Church Christ bore, that is, in his flesh our salvation, by crucifying him who died for our sins, and that land did not give him its fruits, because he was not justified by faith in his resurrection who rose for our justification: hence, neither did the resurrected one appear to those by whom he was crucified, like Cain working the land, to sow that grain, not showing the same land the fruit of its virtue. But the Jews worked the land which is the Church, acting through their persecutions so that it might more greatly progress in God: often also raging against many unto death, but they themselves did not merit to see the fruit of the faith and precious death of those. But what Cain answered to the Lord was, “My iniquity is greater than to deserve forgiveness. Behold you cast me today from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth:” it is evident more clearly than light about the Jewish people, because the iniquity by which they killed the Son of God is greater than to deserve forgiveness; and hence whoever of them receive forgiveness repenting, these truly beyond their merit are saved by the divine grace of piety. It is evident that he was cast out from the face of the earth, that is, from the lot of the holy Church, and hidden from the face of divine contemplation; what he himself extended, when he veiled the face of Christ in the passion, which also the heavenly signs extended to them, when, he being crucified, the sun hid its rays of light, and with the kingdom lost, a fugitive and wanderer he was dispersed through the world, fearing lest he be deprived of even temporal life, and as if saying with Cain: “Everyone who finds me will kill me.” But what did God answer to him? “It shall not be so,” but “whoever kills Cain will pay sevenfold vengeance,” that is, the impious race of carnal Jews will not perish by bodily death. For whoever will thus destroy them will pay sevenfold vengeance, that is, will remove from them the sevenfold vengeance with which they were bound for the guilt of the slain Christ, so that in this whole time, which is turned by the sevenfold number of days, the more because the Jewish nation did not perish, it may appear clearly enough to faithful Christians what subjection they deserved, who with proud rule killed the Lord. We placed the exposition of this sentence here according to the old translation because we have excerpted from the works of St. Augustine who followed this, as also many other things.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:13-14
My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon. Behold, you cast me out today from your presence, and I shall be hidden from your face and from the face of the earth, and I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth. I am cast out, he says, from your sight, and the consciousness of my crime not enduring the very light itself, I shall be hidden to lie in concealment. Or certainly you cast me out from the face of the earth, namely that in any region of the lands, among any inhabitants of this world, I may not be allowed to remain safe and free, and also hidden from your face, that I may no longer deserve to see it, which until today, by often beholding and hearing your voice, I lived more happily.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:14
Therefore, everyone who finds me will kill me. Since from the trembling of the body and the fury of the trembling one, or from the instability of the wanderer and fugitive, he understands him to be one who deserves to be killed. But God, not wanting to end his torments quickly with death, nor delivering him to the punishment to which he had condemned himself:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:15
(Verse 15.) Everyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold vengeance. Aquila interpreted it sevenfold. Symmachus, the seventh. Theodotion, by the week. On this chapter, our letter to Bishop Damasus exists.

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:15
By no means, he said, shall it be so, but whoever kills Cain shall be avenged sevenfold. You shall not die as you think, and you shall not receive death as a remedy, but you shall live for a long time as an example to others, so that they may not dare to sin in the same way; and it is so far from my wish that you be killed by anyone, that if anyone kills you, he shall be punished sevenfold, that is, with the gravest vengeance, for he will not have refrained from shedding blood despite being warned by the severity of your condemnation. For man should not have killed the man to whom God had given life despite his sin, either for the accumulation of his punishment or for the exemplar of caution and correction of others. For often Scripture signifies fullness by the number seven, as in Leviticus: If you walk contrary to me, and will not listen to me, I will add seven times more plagues upon you (Lev. 26:21). And a little later: And I will strike you seven times for your sins (Lev. 26:24), meaning manifoldly. And in a favorable sense the Psalmist says: Seven times a day I praise you (Ps. 118:164), which is to say in other words: His praise shall constantly be in my mouth (Ps. 34:1). As the ancient interpreters have said: Whoever kills Cain shall pay sevenfold vengeance, this holds the meaning: You shall live up to the seventh generation, and be tormented by the fire of your conscience; so that whoever kills you, according to double understanding, either in the seventh generation or to free you from great torment: not that he who kills Cain should be subjected to sevenfold vengeance, but that he should pay the sevenfold vengeance which have extended through the whole time of Cain, by killing him who was left alive for punishment. For the seventh from Adam was Lamech, who is said to have killed Cain: and this same Lamech fulfilled the sevenfold vengeance which Cain, having sinned sevenfold, deserved, by his death. For his first sin was that, offering to God, he did not divide rightly; the second, that he envied his brother; the third, that he acted deceitfully, saying: Let us go out to the field; the fourth, that he killed him; the fifth, that he brazenly denied: I do not know; the sixth, that he condemned himself, saying: My iniquity is greater than that I can deserve pardon; the seventh, that he did not repent even after being condemned.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:15
And God set a sign upon Cain, lest anyone who found him would kill him. The very sign by which it was evident that he would always live as a trembling, groaning, wandering, and fugitive; reminded by his own misery, because he could not be killed by just anyone; but whoever would kill him would either deliver Cain himself from great miseries or, by doing this, would subject himself to a sevenfold vengeance.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:15
And God set a mark upon Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. The Jewish people, whether under pagan or Christian rulers, have the mark of their law, by which they are distinguished from other nations and peoples, and every emperor or king who finds them in his kingdom finds them with that mark, nor does he kill them, that is, he does not make them cease to be Jews, being distinguished by a certain definite mark of their own observance from the communion of other nations, unless any of them have turned to Christ.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Genesis 4:16
The Scripture makes good sense: “Cain left God’s presence and went to live in the land of Nod, opposite Eden.” Nod means “disturbance,” Eden, “the good life.” The good life from which the transgressor was expelled consisted in faith, knowledge, peace. Those wise in their own eyes … are happy to transfer to the disturbance of a tossing sea. They drop from the knowledge of the One who knows no birth to the realm of birth and death. Their opinions are constantly changing.

Source: STROMATEIS 2.51.4-5
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Genesis 4:16
By means of righteousness we come into God’s presence, as Moses did when he entered the thick cloud where God was. On the other hand, by the practice of evil a person leaves the presence of the Lord. For example, Cain, when he killed his brother, left the Lord’s presence as far as his will was concerned.

Source: FESTAL LETTERS 10
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:16
After Cain received the punishment and the sign had been added to it … Moses said that “Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Cain, therefore, separated himself from his parents and his kin because he saw that they would not intermarry with him.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.11.1
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:16
The land of Nod is so called because it was the land in which Cain wandered about in fear and trembling. But the land also received a second curse when God said, “When you till the earth it shall no longer yield to you its strength.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.11.1
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:16
There the families
of the two brothers had separated:
Cain went off by himself
and lived in the land of Nod,
a place lower still
than that of Seth and Enosh;
but those who lived on higher ground,
who were called
“the children of God,”
left their own region and came down
to take wives
from the daughters of Cain down below.

Source: HYMNS ON PARADISE 1.11
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:16
(Verse 16.) And he dwelt in the land of Naid. Which the Septuagint translated as Naid, but in Hebrew it is called Nod, meaning 'shaking', that is, unstable and fluctuating, with an uncertain dwelling place. Therefore, it is not the land of Naid, as our common people think, but the divine sentence is fulfilled, that he wandered and fled here and there.

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, that is, from the inner parts of those dwellings in which he had been living with his parents until then, and was often accustomed to see Him in angelic form.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:16
He dwelled in the land as a fugitive to the east of Eden. Eden is interpreted as pleasure or delight, by which name paradise is designated, about which it is said above: "And the Lord God planted a garden of pleasure from the beginning," which ancient interpreters have thus translated: "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east," from which it is understood that paradise is established to the eastern region of the world. Therefore, Cain dwelled not to the eastern region of paradise, otherwise he would dwell beyond this world, but in the eastern parts of the world, where paradise is nearby, although inaccessible and unknown to mortals. All things that are said literally about the justice or martyrdom of Abel, and about the depravity and condemnation of Cain, mystically testify to the passion of the Lord, the incarnation and persecution, and the destruction of the Jews. For the Lord says to those same Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well; for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). Thus Cain was the firstborn, Abel the second. The people of the Jews were God's first possession, as He Himself said to Moses, "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22); the second is the people of the gentiles, for whom especially the Son of God deemed it worthy to be born in the flesh and to die. Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and the Lord said: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:14). But Cain was a farmer, because the people of the Jews were involved in earthly and temporal affairs, either pursuing these alone or serving the Lord with these in mind, as they carnally understood those things which the prophets spoke mystically about the heavenly promise, saying: "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19).

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod to the east of Eden. By the presence of the Lord is usually understood the recognition by which He manifests and is known. Therefore, deservedly, the people who have withdrawn from the grace of divine recognition are said to dwell on earth. For they cannot say with the elect, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20). The Septuagint interpreters translated this passage thus: "Now Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God and dwelt in the land of Naid opposite Eden." Naid, however, is translated as "fugitive," or as we find in the book of Hebrew names, "unstable motion and fluctuation," which some, including Josephus, agree to be the place where Cain dwelt. Furthermore, our interpreter understood not the name of a place, but the significance of the thing itself; because Cain would be always unstable and fluctuating and of uncertain abodes. How much this matches the present state of the Jews, the whole world is a witness. They are also rightly said to dwell opposite Eden. For Eden signifies pleasure or delight: because indeed that faithless people, as much as they turn away from the knowledge of truth and entangle themselves in earthly affairs, so much they live a life contrary to heavenly delights; and because they only thirst for temporal joys, they are adversaries with the dry throats of their hearts to the torrent of divine pleasure by which the righteous are refreshed.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:17
Consider now the text: “And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth Enoch; and he built a city and called the name thereof by the name of his son Enoch.” It does not at all follow from these words that we must believe Cain’s first son was Enoch, as though “Cain knew his wife” must refer to their first intercourse. You have the same expression used of the first father, Adam, but not only in reference to the conception of Cain, who seems to have been his firstborn, since a little later Scripture records, “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and brought forth a son and called his name Seth.”

Source: City of God 15.8
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:17
Now, it is recorded of Cain that he built a city, while Abel, as though he were merely a pilgrim on earth, built none. For the true city of the saints is in heaven, though here on earth it produces citizens in whom it wanders as on a pilgrimage through time looking for the kingdom of eternity. When that day comes, it will gather together all those who, rising in their bodies, shall have that kingdom given to them in which, along with their Prince, the King of Eternity, they shall reign forever and ever.

Source: City of God 15.1
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:17
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. He built a city, and he called its name after his son's name, Enoch. Just as from the beginning of the world, starting with the murder of Abel, the passions of the saints were present; so too in the malice and persecution of Cain, the betrayals of the reprobate are suggested, which will continue in the world until the end of the age; thus in the city that Cain built, it was symbolically intimated that the entire hope of the wicked is to be fixed on the kingdom and happiness of this world, as they have no faith or desire for future goods. The Lord speaks of this city through the prophet Hosea: "I am God, not human, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not enter into the city" (Hosea 11:9). For neither Abel nor Seth, who was born in his place, are read to have built a city or houses: for they clearly designated, or rather they were the first fruits of those who rejoice to sing to their Creator: "For I am a sojourner with you, a wanderer, as were all my fathers" (Psalm 39:12). This fits well with the promise of the Lord we mentioned earlier: "I am God and not human, the Holy One in your midst": because to the extent that they render themselves foreigners from the association of the worldly city, they are therefore more worthy of the dwelling of their Creator. Cain aptly called the city by the name of his son Enoch, to designate that he would have successors who, being excluded from the heavenly fatherland, would fix their hearts on the delight of this life. And well indeed is Enoch interpreted as Dedication, because the reprobates, while they desire to rejoice for what they work in the present, as if dedicating the city which they build for themselves in the first generation. Conversely, in the lineage of the human race which descended through Seth to Noah, the seventh from Adam is born as Enoch, who is read to have walked before God and was not found because God took him: for indeed the rest and joy and the entire hope of the elect is in the future Sabbath, who, after walking with the Lord in this life, humbly following His commandments, are taken by Him into the life of eternal rest and no longer appear among mortals, because they live with Him immortally. They are indeed His city and temple, now daily striving towards perfection through good works, and then, their labors completed, reigning with Him, and in their own dedication, which will perpetually be celebrated through the presence of the Holy Spirit, each rejoices as if in the name of Enoch.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:18-22
That Cain remained alive until the seventh generation is clear. First, … it had been so decreed concerning him. Second, the length of the lives of those first generations also testifies to it. For if his father Adam remained alive until the ninth generation, that of Lamech, and was gathered from the world in the fifty-sixth year of Lamech, it is no great thing that Cain should remain until the seventh generation.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.9.4
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:18-22
The text runs: “Methushael begot Lamech, who took two wives: the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella. And Ada brought forth Jobel; who was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of herdsmen. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the psaltery and cittara. Sella bore Tobel; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tobel was Noema.” This is as far as the line of descent from Cain is carried. There are eight generations in all, including Adam. The seventh is that of Lamech, who was the husband of two wives; the eighth is that of his children, among whom is the woman who is mentioned by name. What is here delicately intimated is that to the very end of its existence the earthly city will be propagated by physical births proceeding from the union of the sexes. This is why we are given the proper names of the wives of the last man mentioned as begetting children—a practice unheard of before the flood, except in the case of Eve.

Source: City of God 15.17
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:18
Moreover, Enoch begot Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech, who took two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah, and Adah bore Jabal. The progeny of Cain is counted up to the seventh generation, and in this generation, he himself was killed by Lamech, being freed from the sevenfold punishments which he had long borne. In this entire offspring that was born from him, having been also polluted by the adultery of Lamech adding to the curse, perished with the coming flood. Defiled indeed by adultery in the sixth generation, but destroyed by the flood in the seventh generation, in which it is spiritually conveyed that the city of the impious, that is, the entire society of the reprobate, will corrupt itself with crimes in the six ages of this world, but in the seventh, which is in the future, it will perish eternally. For just as Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was taken up into paradise and man did not see him, because he lives in peace with God, so the seventh from Cain, Jabal, is interpreted as “Change,” and he was destroyed by the flood with his brothers and all his progeny, and man did not see him, because he was punished with eternal death, and from the glory of the world which he loved, he was changed into the punishment which he did not foresee. In these, it is clearly indicated, as we have said, that the holy tend towards rest in another life after the six ages of this world, and the reprobate towards punishment, as also the history narrated by the Lord about the poor Lazarus and the proud rich man clearly proves.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:20
He begot, he says, Ada Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and shepherds, and the name of his brother was Jubal. He was the father of those who play the harp and organ. Sella also begot Tubal-Cain, who was a forger in every kind of bronze and iron work. All these things which are said to have been found or made by the sons of Lamech relate to the cultivation, adornment, or enticements of this life: but none such are read of Abel, nor of Seth who was born in his place, nor of his grandchildren, but they are proved to have led a simple life on earth like strangers. For even if Abel was a shepherd of sheep, he did not so devote himself to this service as to build himself tents in which he could engage more comfortably in it. As for the harp and organ, it is far from likely that so great a man would have given any time to them. Indeed, anyone who diligently observes all the works made of bronze and iron will clearly recognize that if the human race had kept the natural law rightly, even after being expelled from the joys of paradise by the fault of transgression, it would by no means need all these things: whence it is evident that all these were invented by the sons of the curse, although later, as the human race degenerated from the purity of its first way of life, even good servants of God sometimes engaged in such things for the sake of social living. But with a great distinction, of course, because the wicked delighted in such things as their highest good: whereas the chosen either utterly renounce them or use them for some convenience of this life, until they reach the eternal, as a traveler uses a lodging or provisions while passing through. In short, the patriarchs lived in tents, but like strangers on earth, to distinguish them from those who lived in cities and houses as citizens of the earth. The psalmists used the harp and organ, but to praise the Lord with them: and on the contrary, the prophet reproves those who resounded with the harp, tambourine, and lyre in banquets. There were learned men among the people of God in all works of bronze and iron, as well as silver and gold: but God himself commanded them to transfer this art to the distinction of his tabernacle. The prophet also, proclaiming the joys of the Lord's incarnation, predicted that harmful works of iron would be removed and changed for the better, saying, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isa. II, 4). Nor should it be passed over negligently that when men began to be defiled by adultery, to devote more than right to the tending of flocks, to be dissolved by musical modes, to engage in forging arts, then they were destroyed by the overhanging flood. But we must guard more diligently lest the last day find us ensnared by such things beyond measure, for the Lord, speaking of the day of judgment, mentioned this time to incite us to the study of caution, saying: For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away; so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt. XXIV, 38).

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:22
The sister of Tubalcain is Noema. Noema is interpreted as Pleasure. Well, the lineage of Cain fittingly ends with the birth of a woman; and the same woman is named Pleasure: because the entire intention of the wicked in the world serves allurements, and they desire to end their life in the fulfillment of carnal pleasures. Indeed, after this woman was born, not long after, the entire cursed progeny was finished by the flood: because when they submit the neck of their mind to the delights of the world, when they say peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them. It should be noted, however, that delight or pleasure can be understood in two ways, that is, in both good and evil: in good, namely, when it is said, "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (Psalm 37:11). And again: "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures" (Psalm 36:8). From which pleasure paradise is also named, because surely man was placed in it to enjoy perpetually the most blessed and holy delights of the flesh and soul in the presence of his Maker. But pleasure is understood in an evil sense when certain lovers of pleasures more than of God are noted by the Apostle. The name Noema is fittingly applied to them, in whose generation at first the world's age, except for a few, was destroyed. Therefore, the human race had departed from Eden, that is, from the delights of internal goods; and, having abandoned heavenly things, was cultivating the earth, and had come to the birth of a woman, who would be named Noema, that is, Pleasure: and not long after, everything perished in the cataclysm: so that indeed it might be indicated, both by the birth of such offspring and by the outcome of the ensuing disaster, that those who neglect spiritual things and subjugate themselves to the pleasures of the flesh rightly hasten toward destruction. And indeed Noema was born in the seventh generation from Cain. But if you wish to count the generations from Adam and also number all the sons of Lamech, you will find Noema in the eleventh place. For Lamech is the seventh from Adam, and when you add his four children, you indeed fulfill the number eleven. The number eleven, which exceeds ten, is often used to designate sin, which is committed by the transgression of the decalogue. And therefore, rightly, the reprobate generation is terminated and perishes in the eleventh number, and that in a woman: because while despising the precepts of the divine law, striving to be satiated by depraved pleasures, they build sudden destruction for themselves.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:23-24
Some, because they think that Cain was avenged for seven generations, say that Lamech was evil, because God had said, “All flesh has corrupted its path,” and also because the wives of Lamech saw that the line of their generation would be cut off. They were giving birth not to males but to females only, for Moses said that it was “when men multiplied on the earth and daughters were born to them.” When these wives saw the plight of their generation, they became fearful and knew that the judgment decreed against Cain and his seven generations had come upon their generation. Lamech, then, in his cleverness, comforted them, saying, “I have killed a man for wounding me and a youth for striking me. Just as God caused Cain to remain so that seven generations would perish with him, so God will cause me to remain, because I have killed two, so that seventy-seven generations should die with me. Before the seventy-seven generations come, however, we will die, and through the cup of death that we taste we will escape from that punishment which, because of me, will extend to seventy-seven generations.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 4.2.2-3
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:23-24
Still others say that Lamech, who was cunning and crafty, saw the plight of his generation: that the Sethites refused to intermingle with them because of the reproach of their father Cain, who was still alive, and that the lands would become uncultivated from the lack of plowmen and their generation would thus come to an end. Lamech, therefore, moved by zeal, killed Cain together with his one son whom he had begotten and who resembled him, lest through this one son who resembled him the memory of his shame continue through their generations. When he killed Cain, who had been like a wall between the two tribes to keep them from tyrannizing each other, Lamech said to his wives as if in secret, “A man and a youth have been killed, but take and adorn your daughters for the sons of Seth. Because of the murders that I have committed and because of the adornment and beauty of your daughters, those who refused to be married to us in the past six generations might now consent to marry with us in our generation.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 4.3.1-2
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Genesis 4:23-24
Some think that Cain was destroyed by Lamech on the grounds that he lived until that time to pay the longer penalty. But this is not true. For Lamech seems to have perpetrated two murders from what he tells us. “I have killed a man and a youth”—the man for wounding and the youth for bruising. Now, a wound is one thing and a bruise another; and a man is one thing and a youth another. “For Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, but Lamech seventy times sevenfold.” It is right for me to undergo four hundred and ninety chastisements, if truly God’s judgment against Cain is just, that he should undergo seven punishments. In fact, as he did not learn to murder from another, so he did not see the murderer undergoing the penalty. But I, having before my eyes the man groaning and trembling and also the greatness of the anger of God, was not brought to my senses by the example. Therefore I deserve to pay four hundred and ninety penalties.

Source: LETTERS 260
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Genesis 4:23-24
“Lamech said,” the text in fact goes on, “to his wives Ada and Sella, Listen to my voice, wives of Lamech, hearken to my words: I killed a man for wounding me, and a young man for striking me. On Cain fell sevenfold vengeance, but on Lamech seventy times sevenfold.” Apply your attention to the utmost. I beseech you, put aside all worldly thoughts and let us study these words with precision so that nothing may escape us, but rather we should proceed to their deepest meaning and be able to light upon the treasure concealed in these brief phrases. “Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella,” the text says, “Listen to my voice, wives of Lamech, hearken to my words.” Consider at once, I ask you, from the outset how much benefit this man gained from the punishment inflicted on Cain. Not only does he not await accusation from someone else to the effect that he has been guilty of this sin or some worse one, but without anyone’s accusing him or censuring him he confesses his own guilt, admits his crimes and outlines to his wives the magnitude of his sin, as to fulfill the proverb of the inspired writer, “He who accuses himself at the beginning of the speech is in the right.” You see, confession is of the greatest efficacy for correction of faults. Thus the denial of guilt after the committing of sin proves worse than the sins themselves. This was the condition of that man who killed his brother and who when questioned by the loving God did not merely decline to confess his crime but even dared to lie to God and thus caused his life to be lengthened. Accordingly Lamech, when he fell into the same sins, arrived at the conclusion that denial would only lead to his receiving a severer punishment, and so he summoned his wives, without anyone’s accusing or charging him, and made a personal confession of his sins to them in his own words. By comparing what he had done to the crimes committed by Cain, he limited the punishment coming to him.

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 20.6-7
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Genesis 4:23-24
Some interpreters understand this not of two men or, as others fantasize, of Cain, but of one and the same young man: “a man I have killed for wounding me and a young man for bruising me.” That is, a young man approaching maturity. He escapes vengeance through confession of sin, and pronouncing judgment on himself, he prevents divine judgment.

Source: QUESTIONS ON GENESIS 44
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:23-24
And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Zillah: "Hear my voice, you wives of Lamech; give ear to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me." The man or young man that he mentions signifies Cain, whom the same Lamech unintentionally killed, as Jerome testifies to be written in a certain Hebrew volume. He killed him both in his wound and in his bruise, because he brought death and damnation upon himself for killing him whom God had granted life.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:24
Sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for Cain, but for Lamech seventy-sevenfold. Sevenfold vengeance was taken for Cain, as he bore the penalties of fratricide and envy as a wandering fugitive up to the seventh generation. But for Lamech seventy-sevenfold, because, as Jerome testifies, reported to him by the Hebrews, and Josephus confirms the same, seventy-seven souls were generated from the lineage of Cain, which perished in the flood. They say that in this number the vengeance upon Lamech was accomplished, as his lineage persisted until the flood. Lamech is interpreted as "Smiting" or "Smitten," both interpretations fitting the same man who struck Cain and for this same parricide he was struck by divine vengeance. Mystically, however, Lamech signifies mankind, both smitten by the deceit of the ancient enemy in the first parent, and smiting itself by the accumulation of daily sins, for which vengeance was given seventy-sevenfold; because until the advent of Christ, who appeared in the world in the seventy-seventh generation, the guilt of the first transgression pressed upon mankind, until He came to take away the sins of the world, and by the door of the kingdom of heaven, opened by his baptism or passion, lead us into eternal life which we lost in Adam. Then, therefore, vengeance upon Lamech ceased because, with the sting of death and sin broken by the Lord's passion and resurrection, mankind returned to the heavenly kingdom.

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Genesis 4:25
We agree that weakness of will and sexual immorality are passions inspired by the devil. But the harmony of responsible marriage occupies a middle position. When there is self-control, it leads to prayer; when there is reverent bridal union, to childbearing. At any rate, there is a proper time for the breeding of children, and Scripture calls it knowledge, in the words “Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a son, and called him by the name of Seth, ‘for God has raised up for me another child in Abel’s place.’ ”

Source: STROMATEIS 3.81.4-5
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:25
(Verse 25) And he called his name Seth. For God has provided me another offspring in place of Abel, whom Cain killed. Seth, properly θέσις, that is, position, is called because God had set him in place of Abel. Finally, Aquila says: And he called his name Seth, saying: For God has placed another offspring for me.

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:25
It is quite possible that when Adam was divinely inspired to say, after Seth was born, “God has given me another seed, for Abel whom Cain slew,” there is no implication here that Seth was the next born in the order of time but only that he was destined to be a fit heir in the order of holiness.

Source: City of God 15.15
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:25
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel. After he mentioned the fratricide Cain being extinguished, and repeated that his progeny was cursed in the seventh generation, he returns to explain the restoration of the holy seed, and that this remained perpetually despite the perishing of the impious. Now Seth is interpreted as "appointed" or "resurrection," the reason for the name being revealed by the parent saying:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:25
The Lord has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. He was appointed in place of Abel, not only in the order of birth but also in the merit of virtue, filling the place of his brother, whose devotion of mind is shown to have also passed to his offspring, as it is added:

Source: Commentary on Genesis
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 4:26
After Seth begot Enosh, Moses wrote “at that time he began to call on the name of the Lord.” Because Seth had separated himself from the house of Cain, the Sethites were called by the name of the Lord, that is, the just people of the Lord.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 5.1.2
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Genesis 4:26
The Holy Spirit came upon all the righteous men and prophets, such as Enosh, Enoch, Noah and so on, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 16:27
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 4:26
(Verse 26) And he called his name Enos: this one hoped to invoke the name of the Lord God. Just as Adam () is interpreted as 'man': so also Enos () according to the variety of the Hebrew language is called 'man' or 'vir'. And it is beautiful because he had this word, it is written about him, 'Then was the beginning of invoking the name of the Lord God': although many Hebrews interpret it differently, that at that time idols were first made in the name of the Lord and in his likeness.

Source: Hebrew Questions on Genesis
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:26
We have two lines of succession, one descending from Cain and the other from the son who was born to Adam in order to be the heir of Abel who was killed and to whom Adam gave the name of Seth. He is referred to in the words “God has given me another seed, for Abel whom Cain slew.” Thus it is that the two series of generations that are kept so distinct, the one from Seth and the other from Cain, symbolize the two cities with which I am dealing in this work, the heavenly city in exile on earth and the earthly city, whose only search and satisfaction are for and in the joys of earth.

Source: City of God 15.15
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Genesis 4:26
Seth means “resurrection,” and the name of his son Enosh means “man.” The name Adam also means “man,” but in Hebrew it can be used for any human person, either male or female; as one can see from the text: “He created them male and female; and blessed them and called their name Adam.” This text leaves no doubt that Eve was given her proper name, whereas the common noun “adam,” or “human being,” applied to both Adam and Eve. It was different with the name Enosh. This means “man,” Hebrew scholars tell us, in the sense of a man as distinguished from a woman. Thus Enosh was a “son” of “resurrection.”

Source: City of God 15.17
[AD 735] Bede on Genesis 4:26
But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enos. He began to invoke the name of the Lord. Enos is interpreted as Man or Vir: whence it is proper that he who has such a name begins to invoke the name of the Lord, imploring the help of the Creator all the more earnestly in his daily prayers, the more he remembers that he is made of frail nature. Mystically, however, just as Abel slain by Cain denotes the suffering Lord; so Seth born for him designates him risen from the dead: hence, aptly among the Septuagint Translators, it is reported that his father or mother said at his birth: For God has raised up for me another seed for Abel, whom Cain killed. For this reason it is rightly called another seed according to the mystical senses, since the same Lord who was slain has risen again, because indeed he was slain mortal, he rose immortal: he died so that we might not fear death: he rose to give us hope and faith in rising again from death: whose separation of seeds, speaking of our resurrection, the Apostle has plainly distinguished, saying, It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor, it rises in glory: it is sown in weakness, it rises in power: it is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body (I Cor. XV, 42). And concerning the Lord himself, Although he died, he says, of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God (II Cor. XIII, 4). Enos truly, the son of Seth, figuratively expresses the Christian people, who through faith and the sacrament of the Lord’s passion and resurrection are daily born from water and the Holy Spirit throughout the whole world. For preferring the grace of his regeneration to his first generation, he is accustomed to invoke the help of the name of the Lord in all that he does, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name (Matt. VI, 9), etc., in that same Lord’s prayer, or in others with which we are accustomed to implore his grace, without which we are worth nothing; whence also we are rightly called by the name Enos, that is, Man, on account of the consciousness of our frailty: on account of the hope of our future immortality, we are the sons of Seth, that is, of the Resurrection.

Source: Commentary on Genesis