NIV Our Family Story Bible | Page 7

Genesis 4:19  T  5 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” 20 Adam  a ­named his wife Eve,  b be­cause she ­would be­come the moth­er of all the liv­ing. 21 The Lord God made gar­ments of skin for Adam and his wife and c ­ lothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now be­come like one of us, know­ing good and evil. He must not be al­lowed to r ­ each out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for­ev­er.” 23 So the Lord God ban­ished him from the Gar­den of Eden to work the g ­ round from ­which he had been tak­en. 24 Af­ter he d ­ rove the man out, he p ­ laced on the east side  c of the Gar­den of Eden cher­u­bim and a flam­ing ­sword flash­ing back and ­forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Cain and Abel 4 Adam  a made love to his wife Eve, and she be­came preg­nant and gave birth to Cain.  d She said, “With the help of the Lord I have ­brought ­forth  e a man.” 2 Lat­er she gave ­birth to his broth­er Abel. Now Abel kept ­flocks, and Cain ­worked the soil. 3 In the c ­ ourse of time Cain brought some of the ­fruits of the soil as an of­fer­ing to the Lord. 4 And Abel also ­brought an of­fer­ing — ​fat por­tions from some of the first­born of his ­flock. The Lord ­looked with fa­vor on Abel and his of­fer­ing, 5 but on Cain and his of­fer­ing he did not look with fa­vor. So Cain was very an­gry, and his face was down­cast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you an­gry? Why is your face down­ cast? 7 If you do what is ­right, will you not be ac­cept­ed? But if you do not do what is ­right, sin is crouch­ing at your door; it de­sires to have you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Now Cain said to his broth­er Abel, “Let’s go out to the ­field.”  f ­While they were in the ­field, Cain at­tacked his broth­er Abel and ­killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your broth­er Abel?” “I ­don’t know,” he re­plied. “Am I my broth­er’s keep­er?” 10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Lis­ten! Your broth­er’s ­blood ­cries out to me from the g ­ round. 11 Now you are un­der a c ­ urse and driv­en from the ground, ­which ­opened its ­mouth to re­ceive your broth­er’s ­blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ­ground, it will no lon­ger ­yield its ­crops for you. You will be a rest­less wan­der­er on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My pun­ish­ment is more than I can bear. 14  To­day you are driv­ing me from the land, and I will be hid­den from your pres­ence; I will be a rest­less wan­der­er on the ­earth, and who­ev­er ­finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so  g ; any­one who ­kills Cain will suf­fer ven­ geance sev­en t ­ imes over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who ­found him ­would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s pres­ence and ­lived in the land of Nod,  h east of Eden. 17 Cain made love to his wife, and she be­came preg­nant and gave b ­ irth to Enoch. Cain was then build­ing a city, and he ­named it af­ter his son ­Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the fa­ther of Me­hu­ja­el, and Me­hu­ja­el was the fa­ther of Me­thu­sha­el, and Me­thu­sha­el was the fa­ther of La­mech. 19 La­mech mar­ried two wom­en, one n ­ amed Adah and the oth­er Zil­lah. a  20,1 Or The man    b  20  Eve probably means living.    c  24 Or placed in front    Cain sounds like the Hebrew for brought forth or acquired.    e  1 Or have acquired    f  8  Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Masoretic Text does not have “Let’s go out to the field.”    g  15  Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew Very well    h  16  Nod means wandering (see verses 12 and 14).    d  1