translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: The name Abel is not defined here in the text, but the tone is ominous. Abel’s name, the Hebrew word הֶבֶל ( hevel ), means “breath, vapor, vanity,” foreshadowing Abel’s untimely and premature death.


text: The Letter to the Hebrews explains the difference between the brothers as one of faith – Abel by faith offered a better sacrifice. Cain’s offering as well as his reaction to God’s displeasure did not reflect faith. See further B. K. Waltke, “Cain and His Offering,” WTJ 48 (1986): 363-72.


text: The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11 , stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12 ).


text: Where is Abel your brother? Again the Lord confronts a guilty sinner with a rhetorical question (see Gen 3:9-13 ), asking for an explanation of what has happened.


text: What have you done? Again the Lord ’s question is rhetorical (see Gen 3:13 ), condemning Cain for his sin.


text: I must hide from your presence . The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10 .


text: The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12 ; Prov 6:31 ; Isa 30:26 .


text: God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.


text: The name Nod means “wandering” in Hebrew (see vv. 12, 14 ).


text: Seventy-seven times . Lamech seems to reason this way: If Cain, a murderer, is to be avenged seven times (see v. 15 ), then how much more one who has been unjustly wronged! Lamech misses the point of God’s merciful treatment of Cain. God was not establishing a principle of justice when he warned he would avenge Cain’s murder. In fact he was trying to limit the shedding of blood, something Lamech wants to multiply instead. The use of “seventy-seven,” a multiple of seven, is hyperbolic, emphasizing the extreme severity of the vengeance envisioned by Lamech.


text: The name Seth probably means something like “placed”; “appointed”; “set”; “granted,” assuming it is actually related to the verb that is used in the sentiment. At any rate, the name שֵׁת ( shet ) and the verb שָׁת ( shat , “to place, to appoint, to set, to grant”) form a wordplay (paronomasia).