TNDL: This is further illustrated by Cain’s actions after the murder. His father deflected when confronted by God about his sin, but Cain gives an outright lie: “I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). When God judged Adam and Eve, He never cursed them as He cursed the serpent and the ground; this may be because He had formerly blessed them and could not contradict Himself by cursing them. But Cain is the first human being directly and explicitly cursed by God, as the serpent was. The punishment that Cain receives, however, sounds similar to his parents’; his sentence is that the ground will no longer yield produce for him; he will have to wander the earth. But even in the midst of this curse, there is mercy because God promises to avenge Cain if someone murders him, and He signifies this promise by means of a mark. We can’t know what this was, but it would have been clear to anyone who happened upon him.
The narrative suggests that Cain continued to rebel against God, however, because the very next thing that the text attributes to Cain is settling in the land of Nod (which means ‘wandering’ in Hebrew), and building a town which he named after his son, Enoch (not to be confused with Seth’s descendant of the same name). And it seems that his descendants continue to rebel against God; Adam’s seventh-generation descendant through Cain is Lamech, who was the first recorded polygamist, violating God’s will for monogamy as exemplified by Adam and Eve (i.e., God created one woman for Adam, not a harem). Lamech’s speech recorded in 4:23–24 reveals, if nothing else, his determination to defend himself, rather than relying on God to defend him. So by the seventh generation, the sinful human race has ‘progressed’ from sinning to the glorification of sin (it is likely not a coincidence that one of Lamech’s sons is...
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