Cain and his brother (Genesis 4)

Adam and Eve have left the Garden of Eden.  It is not explicitly stated, but it is strongly implied that it is outside the Garden that they start having children.  The text states they had three sons, Cain, Abel, and then Seth.

Before Seth is born, Abel is a shepherd while Cain tills the soil.  A few things have already popped up.

Cain is following more in his father's footsteps since Adam was Eden's farmer and the curse against Adam focused on agriculture.

Second, humanity was not explicitly given animals for food unlike the explicit instructions about plants for food several times.  Thus, we can reasonably infer that when God gave the animal skin to Adam and Eve for clothing, God was implicitly giving animals for food and they were no longer vegetarian.

Cain and Abel both give offerings to God.  God is pleased with Abel's and the only stated rationale is that Abel gave some of his best flock.  In contrast, God is not happy about Cain's offering.  Cain gets angry, takes Abel out in the field, and kills him.

God makes a few interesting statements.  Before Cain killed Abel, God warns him that sin "is crouching at his door and he must control it".  After Cain killed Abel, God said that Abel's blood cries out from the soil.  Further, God also states that the soil opened its mouth and Cain poured Abel's blood into the soil's mouth.

I think these are very interesting images.  The latter also fits the curse that God places on Cain.  Since the soil drank the blood of Abel, Cain is no longer able to till the soil.  Thus, he loses his livelihood and must become a nomad.  God protects Cain and states that anyone that kills Cain will be cursed with seven murders.

Cain then leaves the area of Eden.  He finds a wife and establishes the first recorded city of the Bible.

The story of Cain and Abel encapsulate a lot of the issues and conflicts that we see recurring in the Bible and in all of humanity.  The story speaks on several levels, that it can be used a metaphor for a lot of the human condition.  Here is a sample:

* the first war
Here, we literally have brother against brother.  Later, Christ will emphasize that all people are brothers are sisters.

* shepherds (or herdsmen) against farmers
This conflict exists today.  Massive herds destroy crops, either by eating them or trampling over them.

* farmers and warfare
According to historians, it was the creation of the farm life that first lead to large-scale warfare.  This is because if one farm's crops failed, they would know where to find successful farms and hence, food to eat.  But this involved killing the inhabitants.  We can see the jealousy and fear in Cain play out as farmers want food and are willing to kill others to eat.

* older brother jealous of the younger brother
We will see this again with Jacob and Esau and King David against his older brothers.

* rural verses urban
Cain, the first murderer founds the first recorded city in the Bible.  Cities tend to have a negative reputation throughout Genesis - Babel, Sodom, and Gomorrah.

* following God leads to persecution, if not martyrdom
Cain was killed for doing well to please God.  This pattern persists throughout the Bible.

* the cycle of revenge
I am reminded of a Chinese proverb, "when seeking revenge, dig two graves".  Cain's life is destroyed by killing his brother.

Here, God arrests the cycle by a secondary curse that anyone that kills Cain would himself receive seven murders.  The only other place in the Bible where something like that happens is in the strange event where King David gives the lives of seven of King Saul's male descendants to be executed to avenge the Gibeonites. (2 Samuel 21:1-14).


The Postscript
At the end the chapter, we see Cain's descendants.  In them, we see society emerging.  For instance, we find the first lyre and flute player, I.e., musician, and metal working with copper and iron.  Murders also continue in Cain's descendants as Lameck kills a boy for hurting him.  We are left with no other details, but given the context and Lameck's lament, perhaps the boy unintentionally hurt Lameck and Lameck's response was disproportionate.

The story returns to Adam and Eve, who have Seth to replace Abel.  It is through the Seth line that we find Noah.  I think this a subtle indication that this the order of the children that Adam and Eve had.  We find out in Genesis 5 that they had other children, including daughters.  Here, the emphasis is on Seth.  If so, then God created other human populations, which is one way to explain the appearance of Cain's wife and his fear that a wanderer would kill him.

But for Seth, he is Adam and Eve's living son untainted by murder.  With the birth of his son Enoch, we are told people start to invoke the name of the Lord.  This is a strange phrase, but it seems to indicate that the Adam-Seth-Enoch line had people who worshipped God.  This would contrast the Cain-city dweller line, which includes more murderers.