Metabiblical

Let us begin as we usually do, by cataloguing the more interesting differences between the ASV (American Standard Version) and WEB (World English Bible).

Verse	ASV	WEB
4:2	And again she bare his brother Abel.	Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel.
4:3	And in process of time it came to pass	As time passed
4:4	brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof	brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat
4:7	and unto thee shall be its desire	Its desire is for you
4:8	And Cain told Abel his brother.	And Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.”
4:11	now cursed art thou from the ground	Now you are cursed because of the ground
4:19	And Lamech took unto him two wives	Lamech took two wives
	the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah	the name of the first one was Adah, and the name of the second one was Zillah.
4:20	he was	who was
	cattle	livestock
4:21	he was	who was
4:23	And a young man	a young man
4:25	seed	child

In Genesis 4:2, his brother (ASV) reflects the Hebrew aḥiw, which the WEB expands to “Cain’s brother”. Could this be an attempt to avoid the implication that Abel is Yahweh’s brother?

Genesis 4:3 begins wayᵉhi miqqeṣ yamim, “And so, after [some] days”. The ASV, in a somewhat wordy and paraphrastic manner, reads, “And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to Jehovah.” This is a bit much, but the meaning is correct. The idea is that, first, some time passed, and then, after that, Cain made an offering. However, the WEB swings and misses: As time passed, Cain brought … On this reading, the time is passing while Can makes his offering. Is he making it very slowly?

In Genesis 4:4, Abel brings for his offering mibbᵉkorot ṣono umeḥelbeihen, which the ASV translates of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. This leaves ambiguous whether “fat” refers to individual caprovines or to the sacrificial portions taken from them. The WEB chooses to mechanically update this, apparently without consulting the Hebrew, creating the puzzling Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. In addition to the problem of figuring out what WEB means by “fat”, there is the simple problem that the pronominal ending makes it their fat, not its.

Several interpretations have been proposed. The NRSVue has Abel simply bringing the fat portions of some of the firstborn animals of his flock (“… brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions”). The NABRE, on the other hand, apparently sees Abel bringing the same sorts of portions, but of all the firstlings (“… brought the fatty portion of the firstlings of his flock”). The JPS 1985 Tanakh sees no mention of fatty portions here, and says that Abel “brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock” (REB has a basically identical reading). In the Contemporary English Version, it is the “best parts” of one particular lamb that Abel brings.

In Genesis 4:7, the WEB faithfully updates the wording of the ASV, without attempting to rethink the wording of the verse at all. The WEB’s take on the verse seems to me about as reasonable as anything else I have heard on the verse. A particular difficulty in the verse is understanding the Hebrew wording here translated by “sin crouches at the door”. Westermann calls this “a sentence which is incomprehensible” and asserts that “All explanations or attempts at emendation of the text have failed. It must be admitted that the text is very corrupt” (p. 299).

In Genesis 4:8, something appears to have dropped out of the Hebrew text, which reads something like And Cain said (Hebrew verb wayyomer) to his brother Abel. And then, when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. In this English translation, as in the Hebrew, we seem to have awkwardly skipped over whatever it was that Cain said. Several ancient witnesses read And Cain said to his brother Abel, Let us go into the field, and it is this reading which the WEB follows. Of course, we are still left with a question. Is “Let us go out into the field” the original reading, preserved in the Septuagint (etc.) and missing from the Masoretic Text? Or was the phrase first missing and then “Let us go out into the field” some ancient editor’s best attempt to fill in what seemed to be missing?

In Genesis 4:11, Cain is cursed min ha-adamah, which the ASV reads as “from the ground”. What precisely does this mean, and is this the best translation? Several proposals have been made. The WEB revises the word to “because of the ground” — I am not aware of the reasoning behind this reading, which strikes me as awkward. Some interpreters, including Rashi (who argues based on an unlikely midrashic understanding of Genesis 1:11), read the phrase as “more than the ground”.¹ For the reading “from the ground”, we might take this as meaning that Cain’s curse lies in alienation or removal from the ground which he had farmed — thus, he is to be a wanderer. It is something along these lines, according to Cassuto, that “almost all contemporary exegetes” adopt (he was writing in 1944). Cassuto himself, however, prefers another understanding: “your curse shall come upon you from the ground, just as the cry of your brother’s blood came to me from the ground”.

In Genesis 4:19, the ASV’s “And Lamech took unto him two wives” translates the Hebrew wayyiqaḥ-lo lemek štei našim, literally “took to himself”.

In Genesis 4:20, it is hu haya, literally “he was” that ASV translates literally, and which WEB transmutes into “who was”.

In 4:23, the ASV translation could be read to make Lamech claim to have killed two people: “I have slain a man for wounding me, And a young man for bruising me”. However, given that these are two parallel lines of poetry, a more likely reading is to see a man for wounding me and a young man for bruising me as a poetic repetition of a single idea.

In 4:23, we see an inconsistency in the WEB’s approach to the term sevenfold. While the term is let stand in 4:15, in 23 it is “modernized” to seven times.

In 4:25, it seems to me unnecessary to change “seed” to “child”. See here for more on the WEB’s treatment of the term “seed”.

A Suggested Text

1 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help. 2 And again she gave birth: to his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 Time passed, and Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel also brought an offering from the firstborns of his flock and their fat portions. And Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, 5 but Cain and his offering he did not respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

5 And Yahweh said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will it not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.

8 And Cain said to his brother Abel, Let us go into the field. And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

9 And Yahweh said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel?

And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother’s guardian?

10 And he said, What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.

13 And Cain said to Yahweh, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me out today from the face of the ground, and from your face I will be hidden, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. And it will come to pass that whoever finds me will kill me.

15 And Yahweh said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should smite him. 16 And Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 And to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech. 19 And Lamech took himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal: he was the father of those who dwell with tents and livestock. 21 And his brothers name was Jubal: he was the father of all who handle lyre and pipe. 22 And Zilah, she also gave birth: to Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron.

23 And Lamech said to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech.
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for bruising me.
24 If Cain will be avenged sevenfold, 
then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth. For God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain killed him. 26 And to Seth, to him also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then the invocation of Yahweh’s name began.

Additional Notes

1. I have gotten. Hebrew qaniti, which can also support a reading like “created”, and which this verse is playing against the name Cain (Hebrew qayin).

8. Let us go into the field. Speiser takes this as meaning, go outside.

9. my brother’s guardian. The expression “my brother’s keeper” has become a stock phrase in a way that subtly distorts the original intent of Cain’s words. In today’s English, it is considered obviously right for me to be “my brother’s keeper” in the sense of looking out for the interests of my actual or metaphorical brother. However, Cain’s question to God is a rhetorical one which expects an obvious no answer. God says to Cain, Where is your brother, to which Cain responds, in effect, Are we still children? Am I babysitting him right now?

10. Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out … ASV reads the voice of your brother’s blood cries (similarly WEB). Hebrew qol dᵉmei ʿaḥika ṣaʿaqim. The word blood here is grammatically plural, as is the word cries out, and thus some have argued that blood and not voice must be the subject of the clause. Thus, qol, literally “voice” or “sound” is read here as an interjection, much as in Isaiah 52:8.

14. whoever finds me will kill me. For those interested in the redaction history of Genesis, here we find a sign that the Cain narrative was not originally embedded in its current place. Genesis as it stands seems to imply that no one but Adam and Eve (and perhaps a daughter or two) are alive at this time, but Cain’s expression anyone who finds me more suggests that he lives in a populated world where being an exiled outlaw would be dangerous.

16. presence: literally, face. Compare verse 14.

22. forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron. Hebrew loṭ󠅡eš kol ḥoreš neḥošet ubarzel, a difficult expression. Dillmann believes that, on the analogy of verse 21, the word father may have dropped out of this verse somewhere, and then the idea would be that Jubal is the ancestor of bronze and iron smiths. Dillmann notes several different ways of vocalizing, emending, and interpreting the phrase.

25. Seth … appointed. Hebrew šet … šat.

26. invocation of Yahweh’s name. According to Driver, this phrase refers to “formal and public worship … especially at times of sacrifice”.

Works Cited

For the text of the ASV, WEB, NRSVue, JPS 1985, REB and NABRE I have used the texts currently displayed by Logos Bible Software. For the Contemporary English Version, I have used the text currently displayed at biblehub.com.

• Cassuto, Umberto. Israel Abrahams, trans. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Part 1: From Adam to Noah. Genesis I – VI 8.
• Speiser, E. A. (1962). Genesis. The Anchor Bible.
• Westermann, Claus, translated by John J. Scullion. (1984 translation of the second German edition, 1976.) Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary.

Footnotes

1. See Rashi on 1:11 and 4:11. ↩︎