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Genesis 4:9–16 — Cain's Punishment and the Mark · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a tithe of time, verse by verse.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin reading from the ESV, Genesis 4, 9-16, Judgment and the Mark of Cain.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I do not know.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Am I my brother's keeper?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, What have you done?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to him, Not so, if anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's look closer.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: God begins by asking Cain, Where is Abel your brother?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: There is a connection to the question God asked Adam, where are you?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: In both scenes, God asks a question before addressing what has happened.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Cain responds, I do not know.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Am I my brother's keeper?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But God brings the murder into the open.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: That connection to the ground matters.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cain was introduced as a worker of the ground.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now the ground has received Abel's blood, and Cain is told that when he works it, it will no longer yield its strength to him.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The work Cain had been doing is affected by what he has done.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is also a difference from Genesis 3.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: With Adam, God said, Cursed is the ground because of you.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here, God tells Cain, You are cursed from the ground.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Cain responds by speaking about the weight of his punishment.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: He says he will be a fugitive and a wanderer, and adds, Whoever finds me will kill me.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who is Cain afraid of?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So far, Genesis has named Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now Cain speaks as though someone else could find him.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in the next passage, we'll hear about Cain's wife in a city.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is fair to wonder where those people came from.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis gives us a family story, not a headcount.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Naming four people does not mean it has said only four people were alive when Cain spoke.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Later, Genesis tells us Adam had other sons and daughters, but it does not tell us exactly when each was born or identify the people Cain feared.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: We can notice the question without inventing an answer.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord responds to Cain's fear.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: He warns that anyone who kills Cain will face vengeance, and he puts a mark on Cain so that anyone who finds him will not attack him.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The passage does not describe what that mark looked like.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us why God gave it, but not its appearance.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Cain still faces the consequences God pronounced, while God also acts to protect him from an attack.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The passage ends with Cain going away from the presence of the Lord and settling in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: This concludes Genesis 4 9 16.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we'll move to the recap of Cain and Abel, covering Genesis 4 1 16.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, tithe your time.