Biblion Bible Commentary
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Two offerings, and a face that fell
Genesis 4:1-8
1 The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.” · WEB
Two brothers bring what they have and one is accepted, and God warns the other before he acts rather than after.
Eve's word at Cain's birth is triumphant and, read against the promise of the previous chapter, poignant: I have gotten a man with Yahweh's help. Something was said about her offspring bruising the serpent's head, and she has a son. The first child born to the human race is greeted as though he might be the answer, and he becomes the first murderer.
The brothers are given occupations in a single verse, and both are honorable. Abel keeps sheep; Cain tills the ground — the very work Adam was sent out to do Genesis 3:23. Neither trade is criticized anywhere in the account.
The offerings are described with a difference that is easy to miss and is the only difference the text supplies. Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. One is described by its source; the other is described by its quality, twice over — the firstborn, and the fat, which is to say the choicest parts. The text does not say Cain brought inferior produce. It says of Abel's gift what it does not say of Cain's.
And the acceptance is stated in a form that puts the man before the gift, in both cases: Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, and he didn't respect Cain and his offering. The person is named first each time. What was weighed was not primarily the produce.
The rest of Scripture reads it the same way and adds one word: By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Hebrews 11:4. The difference was faith, which is a description of the offerer, and the account here is consistent with that without stating it.
What happens next is the most merciful thing in the chapter. God speaks to Cain — the rejected one — and asks him two questions rather than pronouncing on him. Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? Then the offer, which is not grudging: If you do well, won't it be lifted up? The door is not shut. Whatever was wrong is repairable, and God says so before anything has happened to Abel.
And then the warning, in an image that has never been improved on: If you don't do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it. Sin is pictured as an animal waiting outside, wanting him — and the sentence is built exactly like the one spoken to the woman a chapter earlier, desire on one side and ruling on the other, which is a good reason to read both as describing a struggle rather than ordaining an arrangement.
Cain was told he could master it. The next verse is eight words long: he spoke to his brother, they went to the field, and he killed him.
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