Adam and Eve had two sons. Cain, the older brother, worked the soil, while Abel kept flocks. In time Cain brought God an offering from the produce of the land. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and their finest portions. God regarded Abel and his offering, but did not regard Cain and his offering.
Cain became intensely angry and his face fell. God asked why he was angry and warned him that if he did what was right he would be accepted. If he did not, sin was crouching at the door, eager to master him, and he must rule over it.
Cain invited Abel into the field. There he attacked his brother and killed him. When God asked where Abel was, Cain claimed not to know and asked whether he was his brother’s keeper. God said that Abel’s blood was crying out from the ground.
Because the ground had received Abel’s blood, it would no longer yield its strength to Cain. Cain would wander the earth. He protested that the punishment was more than he could bear and feared that anyone who found him would kill him. God warned that anyone who killed Cain would suffer sevenfold vengeance and gave Cain a sign so that he would not be killed.
God addressed Cain before violence occurred. The warning pictured sin waiting at the entrance and desiring to master him, while still calling Cain to rule over it. After Abel’s death, God again approached with a question. Cain’s denial and deflection did not silence the blood crying from the ground.
For a farmer, the loss of the ground’s yield struck both livelihood and settled life. Cain feared exile from God’s presence, endless wandering, and death at another person’s hands. The protective sign did not remove his sentence or approve his act; it prevented the first murder from becoming permission for another.
Cain left God’s presence. He settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.