THE STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL
CHAPTER FOUR


The man knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore him Cain.
"I have given birth to a manchild with help the Lord ordained,"
she said; and later she bore his brother and called him Abel, 
	who kept sheep,
while Cain was a tiller of soil. And of the fruit Cain reaped
in the course of time he brought the Lord and offering. 
	And Abel brought
some of the firstlings of his flock with their fat portions well-wrought.
The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offerings, but for Cain
and his He had no regard. Cain was angry and with disdain.
But the Lord told him, "Why are you angry and downcast so?
If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not, you know
that sin will crouch at your door! Its desire is for you,
but you, Cain, must master it." Now Cain spoke onto
his brother Abel and told him, "Let us go into the field."
And when they were there Cain turned on him until Abel
	had been killed.
Then the Lord said onto Cain, "Where is you brother Abel?" and then
he answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" When
he had spoken thus, the Lord said, "What is this you have done?
The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground
	where it runs.
And cursed are you in the soil which has opened its mouth to receive
the blood of your brother from your hand. When you till the soil,
	grieve,
for it shall not give its fruit to you; on the earth you shall be
a fugitive and a wanderer." But Cain cried to the Lord, "For me
this punishment is too great to bear. You are driving me from the soil;
and from your face I shall be hidden. Without hope I shall toil
and be a fugitive on the earth, and whomever finds me will kill me."
But the Lord said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain shall be
punished sevenfold." Then the Lord gave Cain a token so that none
finding him should kill him  - - - they would know he was the one.
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in Nod,
the land to the east of Eden as dictated by God.
Cain raised up his family and for Henoch his sone,
he named a city and from his line of descendents there sprung
those who dwell in tents with flocks and those who play harp and flute,
and those who forge vessels or iron and bronze - - - thus was to be
	the fruit
of the labor of the children of Cain. And Adam knew his wife 
	and she bore
a son called Seth saying, "God has given to me a child once more
in place of Abel whom Cain slew." And to Seth, a son Enos was bore.
And it was about that time that man began to call on the name
	of the Lord.


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