Genesis 4:9
in Genesis 4And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?
KJV
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
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This verse in Genesis 4
Commentary
12 notes on this verseTo what a shameful pitch of presumptuous impudence had Cain arrived when he could thus insult the Lord God! If it had not been on record in the pages of Inspiration, we might almost have doubted whether a man could speak so impudently when actually conscious that God Himself was addressing Him. Men blaspheme frightfully, but it is usually because they forget God and ignore His Presence. But Cain was conscious that God was speaking to him. He heard Him say, "Where is Abel your brother?"
This site's exposition
Where is your brother Abel
on Genesis 4:9-10
God asks Cain where his brother Abel is, as He asked Adam where he was one chapter earlier. Henry notes that the Hebrew reads bloods, in the plural. The voice of Abel's blood cries from the ground, and Hebrews 12:24 says the blood of Jesus speaks a better word.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
A commentator
Philo of Alexandria-20–50
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I · Written before 50.
proposed
(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 …
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.
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?"
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.
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."
5 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
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.
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 …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
To what a shameful pitch of presumptuous impudence had Cain arrived when he could thus insult the Lord God! If it had not been on record in the pages of Inspiration, we might almost have doubted whether a man could speak so impudently when actually conscious that God Himself was addressing Him. Men blaspheme frightfully, but it is usually because they forget God and ignore His Presence. But Cain was conscious that God was speaking to him. He heard Him say, "Where is Abel your brother?" and yet he dared, with the coolest impertinence, to reply to God, "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?" As much as to say—"Do You think that I have to keep him as he keeps his sheep? Am I also a shepherd as he was and am I to take as much care of him as he did of a lame lamb?" The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not, first, cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker. Having committed murder, the hardening influence of sin upon Cain's mind must have been intense and so, at last, he was able to speak out to God's face what he felt within his heart and ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" This goes a long way to explain what has puzzled some persons, namely, the amazing calmness with which great criminals will appear in the dock. I remember to have heard it said of one who had undoubtedly committed a very foul murder, that he looked like an innocent man. He stood up before his accusers as calmly and quietly, they said, as an innocent man would do.
Modern Voices1 voice
What is true is this: that if the nonsense of Nietzsche or some such sophist submerged current culture, so that it was the fashion to deny the duties of fraternity; then indeed it might be found that the group which still affirmed fraternity was the …
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Crieth unto Me is not connected to voice of ( kol ). 19 It is connected to thy brother’s blood.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּ֤אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָה֙ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| קַ֔יִן | kayin | Cain | H7014 → | 19 times |
| אֵ֖י | ʾei | where? | H335 → | 39 times |
| הֶ֣בֶל | hevel | [is] Abel | H1893 → | 8 times |
| אָחִ֑יךָ | ʾachikha | brother your | H251 → | 630 times |
| וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָדַ֔עְתִּי | yada'ti | I know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| הֲשֹׁמֵ֥ר | hashomer | ¿ [the] keeper | H8104 → | 468 times |
| אָחִ֖י | ʾachi | of brother my | H251 → | 630 times |
| אָנֹֽכִי׃ | ʾanokhi | [am] I | H595 → | 359 times |
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
יְהוָה֙Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
קַ֔יִןCain
kayinH7014 →19 times
אֵ֖יwhere?
ʾeiH335 →39 times
הֶ֣בֶל[is] Abel
hevelH1893 →8 times
אָחִ֑יךָbrother your
ʾachikhaH251 →630 times
וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙and he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יָדַ֔עְתִּיI know
yada'tiH3045 →945 times
הֲשֹׁמֵ֥ר¿ [the] keeper
hashomerH8104 →468 times
אָחִ֖יof brother my
ʾachiH251 →630 times
אָנֹֽכִי׃[am] I
ʾanokhiH595 →359 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 28:13He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
it leads to
- 1 John 1:8–10
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Psalms 32:3–5
When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Job 31:33
if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
- 1 John 1:8–10
Through
John 8:44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him.…
it leads to
- Acts 13:10
and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
- 1 John 3:12
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.
- 1 John 3:8–10
The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the…
- 2 Corinthians 11:3
I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
- Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
- Acts 13:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies21
On this verse
About Genesis
Who and where
2 names in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1399: “Am I My Brother's Keeper?” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.6.1; Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 3.6.1; 3.7.1; GK Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 1; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Maximus of Turin, SERMONS 88.1; Philo of Alexandria, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, I and Salvian the Presbyter, GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.6.