1 But Adam knew his wife Heva, who conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying: I have possessed a man by means of God. 2 And again she gave birth to his brother Abel. While Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain a farmer.
3 Whereas it took place after many days as Cail will offer from the frutis of the land gifts to the Lord. 4 Abel also offered from the firstborn of his flock and from the fat of them; and the Lord had regard to Abel and to his offering. 5 But to Cain, and to his offering, he had no regard; and Cain was violently angry and his face fell.
6 And the Lord said to him: Why are you angry? and for what reason did you face fall? 7 If you will not perform well, you will take back; but if on the other hand you do badly will sin arrive in the gates? But his desire will be under you and you will dominate him.
8 And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go outside. And when they were in the field, Cain ambushed his brother Abel, and killed him.
9 And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother?
He answered: I do not know? Am I my brother’s keeper?
10 And he said to him: What have you done? the voice of the blood of your brother calls to me from the earth. 11 Now, therefore, you will be cursed upon the earth, the mouth of which opens itself and receives the blood of your brother from your hand. 12 When you will work it, it will not give you its fruit, wandering and uncertain you will be on the earth.
13 And Cain said to the Lord: Great is my crime, which I have come to deserve. 14 Behold you are casting me out today from the face of th earth and from your face I will hide, and I will be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, therefore all who will come upon me, will kill me.
15 And the Lord said to him: By no means will it thus be done; but all who might kill Cain, I will punish sevenfold. And the Lord put on Cain a sign, so that they wouldn’t kill him, all who came upon him.
16 And Cain, having gone out from the face of the Lord, lived exiled in the land to the East of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife who conceived and gave birth to Henoch, and he built a city, and called its name out of the name of his son, Henoch. 18 Further Henoch begot Irad, and Irad begat Maviael, and Maviael begat Mathusael, and Mathusael begat Lamech, 19 who received two wives, the name of one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella.
20 Ada begat Jabel who was the father of those living in tents and shepherds. 21 And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the father of those playing lyre and musical instruments.
22 Also Sella begat Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and forger in all works of brass and iron. But the sister of Tubalcain was Noëma.
23 And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella: Listn to my voice, wives of Lamech, hear my sermon: Since I have slain a man in my wound, and a young man in my bruise 24 seven times vengence will be given concerning Cain; but concerning Lamech seventy times seven.
25 Also Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has placed for me another seed for Abel whom Cain has slain.
26 But also to Seth was born a son, whom he called Enos; he began to invoke the name of the Lord.
Linguistic notes
In verse 4, St Jerome employs “num” to introduce the famous question, “am I my brother’s keeper?” which is parallel to the Septuagint’s use of μή to introduce the question there. Both imply an answer of “no.” My Hebrew is more than a little rusty, but it appears that this isn’t reflected in the Hebrew text at all (although as far as I know, Hebrew doesn’t have a similar construction to prompt what the expected answer to a yes or no question that Greek and Latin have). It’s unclear whether this is an indication that St Jerome was cribbing from the Septuagint when he was translating the Hebrew or not.
Theological Notes
This chapter marks the introduction of sex and violence into the history of humanity. I’ve noted elsewhere the interesting co-occurrence of these themes (and their bifurcation as well) in the animal kingdom. There’s something fascinating about their co-introduction together in Genesis. It’s also worth noting that we finally, in the seventh generation of mankind, we get the names of some of the wives, perhaps because Lamech had two wives and the genealogist felt compelled to distinguish the two distinct matrilineal lines. So much for cracking the patriarchy here.