Genesis 3:16

Hebrew Bible

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you. 17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of52 your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field.

Genesis 4:7

Hebrew Bible

5 but with Cain and his offering he was not pleased. So Cain became very angry, and his expression was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast? 7 Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it. 8 Cain spoke to his brother Abel.21 While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?”

 Notes and References

"... Among the notable literary links between Genesis 3 and 4, the most prominent was noted in the great Jewish compilation of Genesis traditions and exegesis, Genesis Rabbah. It was also observed by Augustine: “The same words spoken to Cain about sin or the depraved desire of the flesh are here used of the sinful woman”. Augustine, like Genesis Rabbah, was observing that God’s speech to Cain in Genesis 4:6–7 echoes the divine words to Eve in 3:16 ... The resemblance between Genesis 3:16 and 4:7 extends also to the clause that the noun governs, namely “desire” plus preposition “to”. The closest biblical analogy to Cain’s need “to rule” himself appears in the advice given in Proverbs 16:32: “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled [literally, “rules over his own spirit”] than one who captures a city.” This same verbal construction appears in the prayer in Psalm 19:14. Referring to “presumptuous sins”, the psalmist asks of God: “do not let them rule over me.” The “presumptuous sins” in this prayer appear personified as “arrogant persons,” much as sin is personified in Genesis 4:7. Psalm 19:14 captures what Cain is up against, needing to resist his subjugation to the negative power of sin. So the intriguing characterization of sin in Genesis 4:7 is hardly without parallels. It is a dramatic, evocative expression rather than a rational explanation ..."

Smith, Mark S. The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible (pp. 66-67) Westminster John Knox Press, 2019

 User Comments

Why does the KJV mistranslate the Hebrew word (sha' ah), as RESPECT in Genesis 4? The word means turn gaze away in dismay. Abel is a KEEPER of SHEEP (rāʿâ ṣō'n), eater, enslaver of men. Cain the TILLER of GROUND (āḇaḏ 'ăḏāmâ) Gods productive servant.

nashalla, May 28, 2023, 3:45 am

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