Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Parallel translations
- KJV And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
- BSB But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
- NKJV And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!
- NASB Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to endure!
- NLT Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Cain protests that his punishment is more than he can bear. It reveals self-pity rather than genuine repentance.
Overview
Cain laments the weight of his sentence, but his words focus on his own suffering rather than the brother he murdered or the God he offended. His complaint shows sorrow over consequences without true contrition. The contrast highlights the difference between worldly grief and the godly repentance that leads to life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Job 15:22He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
- Rev 16:9People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory.
- Rev 16:21Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is exceedingly severe.
- Rev 16:11and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn’t repent of their works.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 4:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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