And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
15. Therefore ] i.e. on account of Cain’s entreaty, Jehovah’s mercy is shewn to the first murderer. Cain has no friend: Jehovah, by an act of benevolence and authority, will protect him, and undertake his cause even in the desert.
A slight variation in text accounts for LXX , Lat. Nequa-quam ita fiet.
vengeance sevenfold ] i.e. if Cain were killed, seven deaths would be exacted in retaliation; the murderer and six of his family would forfeit their lives, cf. 2Sa 21:8. The words of Jehovah are noticeable, because (1) they emphasize the corporate responsibility of family life, which so often meets us in the O.T.; and (2) they recognize, but regulate, blood-revenge, as a disciplinary primaeval custom of Semitic life. This Oriental custom, while recognized in the O.T. as part of Israelite institutions, is continually being restricted by the operation of the spirit of love, gradually revealed by prophet and by law, in the religion of Jehovah.
the Lord appointed a sign for Cain ] The popular expression “the brand of Cain,” in the sense of “the sign of a murderer,” arises from a complete misunderstanding of this passage. The object of the sign was to protect Cain. It was a warning that should prevent the avenger of blood from slaying him. Even in the desert Jehovah would be Cain’s champion. We have no means of knowing what the sign was. The words imply that some visible mark, or badge, was set upon Cain’s person. If so, it may have some analogy to the totem mark of savage tribes. “There seems little doubt, that the sign which Jahveh gave to Cain was a tattoo mark, probably on his forehead (cf. Eze 9:4; Eze 9:6), to show all men that Cain was under His protection, and thus to save his life. In all probability the mark was the ‘sign of Jahveh,’ the tav (Eze 9:4; Eze 9:6) which was once doubtless worn quite openly by His devotees, and only afterwards degenerated into a superstition.” (Gordon, Early Traditions of Genesis, p. 211.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 4:15
The Lord set a mark upon Cain.
The mark upon Cain
What this mark was we cannot tell. It might be his name affixed by the pen of the lightning in red characters upon his brow, or it might simply be the stain of his brothers blood left by his own fingers, which he had raised up while yet wet and reeking to cover his forehead, rendered miraculously indelible; or it might be some general aspect of grief and guilt, which told too plainly that he had become the first murderer; or, perhaps, it was written on his brow, Kill not this man, murderer as he is, lest thou thyself be punished. (G. Gilfillan.)
A sign given to Cain
Render–Gave a sign to Cain. It is difficult to conceive of any visible mark which should warn men not to touch Cain, and a mark which should merely identify him would of course be rather a danger than a benefit. An interesting parallel occurs in the Laws of Men, which enjoin branding as a punishment of certain crimes:–
Let them wander over the earth
Branded with indelible marks,
They shall be abandoned by father and mother,
Treated by none with affection:
Received by none with respect.
(M. Dods, D. D.)
Cains preservation by God
But why is God so anxious to preserve Cain from death, and to give him the assurance of this security? Some reasons are obvious, besides those which run us up directly to the sovereignty of God.
1. Gods desire is to manifest the riches of His grace, and the extent of His forbearance, and that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wishes by His long suffering to lead him to repentance.
2. Death would not have answered Gods end at all. It was needful that Cain should be preserved alive as an awful monument of sin, a warning against the shedding of mans blood.
3. Cain was spared, too, because of this partial repentance. God accepted Ahabs repentance (1Ki 21:29), poor and hollow as it was; so does He Cains; for He is gracious and merciful, looking for the first and faintest sign of a sinners turning to Himself, willing to meet him at once without upbraiding, and putting the best possible construction on all he says and does. To what length is not the grace of our God able to gel Sin abounds, but grace superabounds. How desirous is Jehovah not to curse, but to bless; not to smite, but to heal; not to destroy, but to save. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Gods mode of dealing with Cain
This passage unfolds to us a mode of dealing with the first murderer which is at first sight somewhat difficult to be understood. But we are to bear in mind that the sentence of death has been already pronounced upon man, and therefore stood over Adam and all his posterity, Cain among the rest. To pronounce the same sentence therefore upon him for a new crime would have been weak and unmeaning. Besides, the great crime of crimes was disobedience to the Divine will, and any particular form of crime added to that was comparatively unimportant. Wrong done to a creature even of the deepest dye was not to be compared in point of guilt with wrong done to the Creator. The grave element in the criminality of every social wrong is its practical disregard of the authority of the Most High. Moreover, every other sin to the end of time is but the development of that first act of disobedience to the mandate of heaven by which man fell, and accordingly every penalty is summed up in that death which is the judicial consequence of the first act of rebellion against heaven. We are also to best in mind that God still held the sword of justice in His own immediate hands, and had not delegated His authority to any human tribunal. No man was, therefore, clothed with any right from heaven to call Cain to account for the crime he had committed. To fall upon him with the high hand in a wilful act of private revenge, would be taking the law into ones own hands, and therefore a misdemeanour against the majesty of heaven, which the Judge of all could not allow to pass unpunished. It is plain that no man has an inherent right to inflict the sanction of a broken law on the transgressor. This right originally belongs only to the Creator, and derivatively only to those whom He has entrusted with the dispensation of civil government according to established laws. (Prof. J. G. Murphy.)
Gods dealings with Cain
We may ask, with some degree of surprise, why God granted this uncommon indulgence to a murderer, who had insidiously killed his own brother? Did not God Himself give the distinct precept: He who sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed? Why was it necessary to take such anxious precautions to save a life forfeited according to human and Divine rights? We hesitate to speak with decision where the text is entirely silent. But we may venture the supposition that, if Cains blood was to be shed by man, it would also have been by the hand of a brother, for no other man existed; the firstborn of Adams strength, and the pride of his mother, would have perished by a cold law of retaliation; the avenging of the crime would, in the result, have been as horrible as the crime itself; and the human family, just called into being, would have perpetrated self-destruction in its first generations. It was thus necessary that God should Himself exercise the duty of punishment, and dispense a chastisement commensurate with the unnatural and fatal offence. A long, laborious life in exile, with the fear of sanguinary retribution perpetually impending, was deemed equivalent to death; and the lamentations of Cain, when he heard the verdict of his flight, prove the bitterness of his pangs. And this is the other side of a profound Biblical idea which we have above pointed out. As the early death of Abel was no curse, so was the long life of Cain no blessing. He was permitted to protract an existence, veiled by the gloom of the past, and uncheered by any hope of the future. No earthly boon, not even long life, the greatest of all, is, in itself, either a pledge of happiness, or a mark of the Divine favour. (M. M.Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Marks on conscience
Whatever was the mark which Cain carried upon his person after that murderous deed, there is no doubt that the mark on his conscience was more deep, more tormenting, more irremovable. Men who sin in these days often carry a mark upon them by which others know them to be sinners; but could you read the inner man you would see stronger marks there, by which they themselves know and feel that they are sinners more sensibly than you see it. (John Bate.)
Marks of crime
We may find, in this part of our narrative, the important practical and philosophical truth, that the traces of crime are indelibly visible in the person of the criminal; the human form divine is degraded and corrupted by vice; it loses that sublime dignity with which a pure and noble soul never fails to impress it; the shy look, the uncertain step, the sinister reserve, the lurking passion, these and many other symptoms of the highest interest for the physiognomist, mark the outcast of society, and make the man conspicuous upon whose conscience weighs the burden of an enormous misdeed. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. The Lord set a mark upon Cain] What this mark was, has given rise to a number of frivolously curious conjectures. Dr. Shuckford collects the most remarkable. Some say he was paralytic; this seems to have arisen from the version of the Septuagint, , Groaning and trembling shalt thou be. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says the sign was from the great and precious name, probably one of the letters of the word [UNKNOWN] Yehovah. The author of an Arabic Catena in the Bodleian Library says, “A sword could not pierce him; fire could not burn him; water could not drown him; the air could not blast him; nor could thunder or lightning strike him.” The author of Bereshith Rabba, a comment on Genesis, says the mark was a circle of the sun rising upon him. Abravanel says the sign was Abel’s dog, which constantly accompanied him. Some of the doctors in the Talmud say that it was the letter tau marked on his forehead, which signified his contrition, as it is the first letter in the word teshubah, repentance. Rabbi Joseph, wiser than all the rest, says it was a long horn growing out of his forehead!
Dr. Shuckford farther observes that the Hebrew word oth, which we translate a mark, signifies a sign or token. Thus, Ge 9:13, the bow was to be leoth, for a sign or token that the world should not be destroyed; therefore the words, And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, should be translated, And the Lord appointed to Cain a token or sign, to convince him that no person should be permitted to slay him. To have marked him would have been the most likely way to have brought all the evils he dreaded upon him; therefore the Lord gave him some miraculous sign or token that he should not be slain, to the end that he should not despair, but, having time to repent, might return to a gracious God and find mercy. Notwithstanding the allusion which I suppose St. Paul to have made to the punishment of Cain, some think that he did repent and find mercy. I can only say this was possible. Most people who read this account wonder why Cain should dread being killed, when it does not appear to them that there were any inhabitants on the earth at that time besides himself and his parents. To correct this mistake, let it be observed that the death of Abel took place in the one hundred and twenty-eighth or one hundred and twenty-ninth year of the world. Now, “supposing Adam and Eve to have had no other sons than Cain and Abel in the year of the world one hundred and twenty-eight, yet as they had daughters married to these sons, their descendants would make a considerable figure on the earth. Supposing them to have been married in the nineteenth year of the world, they might easily have had each eight children, some males and some females, in the twenty-fifth year. In the fiftieth year there might proceed from them in a direct line sixty-four persons; in the seventy-fourth year there would be five hundred and twelve; in the ninety-eighth year, four thousand and ninety-six; in the one hundred and twenty-second they would amount to thirty-two thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight: if to these we add the other children descended from Cain and Abel, their children, and their children’s children, we shall have, in the aforesaid one hundred and twenty-eight years four hundred and twenty-one thousand one hundred and sixty-four men capable of generation, without reckoning the women either old or young, or such as are under the age of seventeen.” See Dodd.
But this calculation may be disputed, because there is no evidence that the antediluvian patriarchs began to have children before they were sixty-five years of age. Now, supposing that Adam at one hundred and thirty years of age had one hundred and thirty children, which is quite possible, and each of these a child at sixty-five years of age, and one in each successive year, the whole, in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the world, would amount to one thousand two hundred and nineteen persons; a number sufficient to found several villages, and to excite the apprehensions under which Cain appeared at this time to labour.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore; or, assuredly, as the word signifies, Jer 2:32; 5:2; Zec 11:17; that thou mayst see how I hate murder, and how impartially I shall punish all murderers; and that thou mayst be unhappily free from this fear, that thou mayst live for an example to mankind, for a terror to thyself and others.
Sevenfold, i.e. abundantly; he shall be plagued with many and grievous punishments, as the phrase is used, Lev 26:28; Psa 12:7; 79:12, and in many other places.
A mark upon Cain. What this was, whether a trembling of his body, or a ghastliness of his countenance, or what other visible token of the Divine displeasure, God hath not revealed, nor doth it concern us to know.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. whosoever slayeth CainBya special act of divine forbearance, the life of Cain was tobe spared in the then small state of the human race.
set a marknot anyvisible mark or brand on his forehead, but some sign or tokenof assurance that his life would be preserved. This sign is thoughtby the best writers to have been a wild ferocity of aspect thatrendered him an object of universal horror and avoidance.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said unto him,…. In order to satisfy him, and make him easy in this respect, that: he need not fear an immediate or bodily death, which was showing him great clemency and lenity; or in answer to his begging for death, “therefore”, or as some render the word, taking them for two, “not so” y; it shall not be that whoever finds thee shall slay thee, thou needest not be afraid of that; nor shall thy request be granted, that thou mightest be slain by the first man that meets thee: it was the will of God, that though Cain deserved to die, yet that he should not die immediately, but live a long miserable life, that it might be a terror to others not to commit the like crime; though rather the particle should be rendered “verily, surely, of a truth” z; so it will certainly be, it may be depended on:
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold; seven times more than on Cain; that is, he shall be exceedingly punished; vengeance shall be taken on him in a very visible manner, to a very great degree; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are
“unto or through seven generations;”
the meaning of which is, that the slayer of Cain should not only be punished in his own person, but in his posterity, even unto seven generations; and not as Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, that God deferred his vengeance on Cain unto seven generations, and at the end of them took vengeance on him by Lamech, one of his own posterity, by whom he is supposed by that Jewish writer to be slain:
and the Lord set a mark upon Cain; about which there is a variety of sentiments a: some say it was a horn in his forehead: others, a leprosy in his face; others, a wild ghastly look; others, a shaking and trembling in all his limbs; and others, that there was an earthquake wherever he stepped: and others will have it, that the dog which guarded Abel’s flock was given him to accompany him in his travels, by which sign it might be known that he was not to be attacked, or to direct him from taking any dangerous road: some say it was a letter imprinted on his forehead, either taken out of the great and glorious name of God, as the Targum of Jonathan, or out of his own name, as Jarchi; others the mark or sign of the covenant of circumcision b: but as the word is often used for a sign or miracle, perhaps the better rendering and sense of the words may be, “and the Lord put”, or “gave a sign” c; that is, he wrought a miracle before him to assure him, that “whoever found him should not kill him”: so that this was not a mark or sign to others, to direct or point out to them that they should not kill him, or to deter them from it; but was a sign or miracle confirming him in this, that no one should kill him; agreeably to which is the note of Aben Ezra,
“it is right in my eyes that God made a sign (or wrought a miracle) for him, until he believed;”
by which he was assured that his life would be secure, go where he would; even that no one should “strike” d him, as the word is, much less kill him.
y “quasi” , Sept. “nequaquam ita fiet”, V. L. z “In veritate, certe”, Vatablus; “profecto, utique”, De Dieu. a See Bayle’s General Diet. art. “Cain”. b Tikkune Zohar, correct. 69. fol. 115. 1. 117. 1. 2. c , “sed et posuit Kaino miraculum (in confirmationem) quod non caesurus esset ipsum quisque”, &c, Schmidt. d , “ne percuteret eum”, Pagninus “ad non percutiendum eum”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Although Cain expressed not penitence, but fear of punishment, God displayed His long-suffering and gave him the promise, “ Therefore ( not in the sense of , but because it was the case, and there was reason for his complaint) whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” , is cas. absolut. as in Gen 9:6; and avenged, i.e., resented, punished, as Exo 21:20-21. The mark which God put upon Cain is not to be regarded as a mark upon his body, as the Rabbins and others supposed, but as a certain sign which protected him from vengeance, though of what kind it is impossible to determine. God granted him continuance of life, not because banishment from the place of God’s presence was the greatest possible punishment, or because the preservation of the human race required at that time that the lives of individuals should be spared, – for God afterwards destroyed the whole human race, with the exception of one family, – but partly because the tares were to grow with the wheat, and sin develop itself to its utmost extent, partly also because from the very first God determined to take punishment into His own hands, and protect human life from the passion and wilfulness of human vengeance.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15. Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain. They who think that it was Cain’s wish to perish immediately by one death, in order that he might not be agitated by continual dangers, and that the prolongation of his life was granted him only as a punishment, have no reason, that I can see, for thus speaking. But far more absurd is the manner in which many of the Jews mutilate this sentence. First, they imagine, in this clause, the use of the figure ἀποσιώπησις, according to which something not expressed is understood; then they begin a new sentence, ‘He shall be punished sevenfold,’ which they refer to Cain. Still, however, they do not agree together about the sense. Some trifle respecting Lamech, as we shall soon declare. Others expound the passage of the deluge, which happened in the seventh generation. But that is frivolous, since the latter was not a private punishment of one family only, but a common punishment of the human race. But this sentence ought to be read continuously, thus, ‘Whosoever killeth Cain, shall on this account, be punished sevenfold.’ And the causal particle לכן ( lekon,) indicates that God would take care to prevent any one from easily breaking in upon him to destroy him; not because God would institute a privilege in favor of the murderer, or would hearken to his prayers but because he would consult for posterity, in order to the preservation of human life. The order of nature had been awfully violated; what might be expected to happen in future, when the wickedness and audacity of man should increase, unless the fury of others had been restrained by a violent hand? For we know what pestilent and deadly poison Satan presents to us in evil examples, if a remedy be not speedily applied. Therefore, the Lord declares, if any will imitate Cain, not only shall they have no excuse in his example, but shall be more grievously tormented; because they ought, in his person, to perceive how detestable is their wickedness in the sight of God. Wherefore, they are greatly deceived who suppose that the anger of God is mitigated when men can plead custom as an excuse for sinning; whereas it is from that cause the more inflamed.
And the Lord set a mark. I have lately said, that nothing was granted to Cain for the sake of favoring him; but for the sake of opposing, in future, cruelty and unjust violence. And therefore, Moses now says, that a mark was set upon Cain, which should strike terror into all; because they might see, as in a mirrors the tremendous judgment of God against bloody men. As Scripture does not describe what kind of mark it was, commentators have conjectured, that his body became tremulous. It may suffice for us, that there was some visible token which should repress in the spectators the desire and the audacity to inflict injury.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) The Lord said unto him, Therefore.Most of the versions have Not so, which requires only a slight and probable change of the Hebrew text.
Sevenfold.Cains punishment was severe, because his crime was the result of bad and violent passions, but his life was not taken because the act was not premeditated. Murder was more than he had meant. But as any one killing him would mean murder, therefore the vengeance would be sevenfold: that is, complete, seven being the number of perfection. Others, however, consider that Cains life was under a religious safeguard, seven being the sacred number of creation. In this we have the germ of the merciful law which set cities of refuge apart for the involuntary manslayer.
The Lord set a mark upon Cain.This rendering suggests an utterly false idea. Cain was not branded nor marked in any way. What the Hebrew says is, And Jehovah set, that is, appointed, unto Cain a sign, that no one finding him should slay him. In a similar manner God appointed the rainbow as a sign unto Noah that mankind should never again be destroyed by a flood. Probably the sign here was also some natural phenomenon, the regular recurrence of which would assure Cain of his security, and so pacify his excited feelings.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Therefore Because there was just reason for such fear of the blood-avenger, and in order to save Cain from such death, the Lord uttered what follows in the text.
Vengeance sevenfold Judgment and penalty of the most extreme character, passing down, perhaps, to children’s children through many generations. God takes the punishment of Cain into his own hands, not because he was not deserving of death, but because in that early time it were better to preserve Cain a living monument of the curse of blood-guiltiness.
Set a mark upon Cain Some sign by which he would be everywhere known as the cursed man, and which also might serve as a token to him that he should not fall by the avenger of blood. But the exact nature of the mark no one now knows, and conjectures are worthless.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 4:15 a
‘Then Yahweh said to him, “It shall not be so. If anyone slays Cain vengeance will be exacted on him sevenfold”.’
Note that these words are in the form of a pronouncement. Cain is mentioned in the third person and not as ‘you’. This is God’s covenant, a unilateral covenant given in a theophany, that protects Cain and is the reason why the story was so vividly remembered and so carefully passed down. This is no promise made to Cain alone, but a public statement of Yahweh’s intent. As such it would need to be communicated to the remainder of the family. So verse 15 is not so much the direct response of God to Cain but His final response in a theophany. Here we leave the scene of Cain’s pleading before Yahweh and the theophany may well have taken place before him and important members of the family.
Notice the reference to ‘sevenfold’. In antiquity seven meant uniquely the number of divine perfection and completeness. Sevenfold vengeance was the totality of divine retribution. Thus total retribution would come on anyone who slew Cain. So in exacting His justice, God yet again shows mercy. In the end it is He who will determine the sentence on Cain, and no one else.
We are so used to the fact that man’s sin brings him into conflict with God, and that it is only through God’s mercy that he is able to go on, that we do not realise what different ideas there were in the ancient world. There the gods were seen as mainly not too concerned with man’s behaviour, unless it affected their interests, and their ‘mercy’ was purely arbitrary. Genesis is unique in constantly establishing this vital relationship between sin, judgment and mercy. (In the translations ‘It shall not be so’ is per the Septuagint, the Syriac and the Vulgate. The Massoretic text has ‘therefore’).
Gen 4:15 b
‘And Yahweh put a mark upon Cain that whoever found him might not kill him.’
It is futile to discuss what kind of mark it was for we can never know. But it must have been something that was quite distinctive, possibly some distortion of the features or disease of the flesh, brought on by guilt, or possibly his hair went white or fell out through the greatness of his stress, but whatever it was, it was something that men would recognise and defer to. When they found him they would back away, for they would acknowledge the mark of God (this would suggest something very unpleasant or awe inspiring to the primitive mind).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 4:15. Therefore whosoever, &c. As Cain was reserved for exemplary punishment, God delivers him from the apprehension of death, and assures him, that seven-fold vengeance, that is, very severe vengeance, (for the word sevenfold is often put for an indefinite, but great number,) shall be taken on any person who should slay him.
And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, &c. The literal translation is, and the Lord gave to, or placed before Cain a sign, aut, , LXX, that no one who found him should kill him, i.e.. assured him of this by some external mark or miracle. As the Hebrew and the Septuagint clearly agree in this translation, it puts an end at once to all those frivolous inquiries concerning the mark, as it has been called, which God put upon Cain. See Exo 10:1. Isa 66:19; Isa 66:24. It is not improbable, but this sign or miracle was given in the presence of so many, that all were soon informed of the will of the Lord concerning Cain.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Ver. 15. The Lord set a mark, &c. ] Some say it was the letter Tau; others, some letter of Jehovah: probably it was the perpetual trembling of his hands, and whole body, the very sight whereof made people pity him, till at length he was slain, say some, by his nephew Lamech. Cedrenus a tells us, if we may believe him, that Cain took his death by the fall of a house in the year of the world 931, the next year after the death of his father Adam. But however he died, sure it is, he had but an ill life of it. He was marked, says Philo, b but to his misery; he might not be killed by any, that he might everyday is dying, having a hell in his conscience, and standing in fear of every man he met with. He that would not hearken to God, so sweetly inciting and enticing him to do well, ( Gen 4:7 has now Pavor and Pallor for his gods, as Lanctantius c reports of Tullius Hostilius, who had profanely derided the devotions of his predecessor Numa, as here Cain had done his brother Abel’s.
a Totum Cedreni opus est stabulum quisquiliarum , &c. – Scalig.
b Ne semel morte defungeretur, sed ut aetatem totam moriendo exigeret . – Philo .
c Lanctan. Instit.
Therefore = not so (with Septuagint) This is emphasized by the Hebrew accent (Pasha).
upon = set a sign for Cain, i.e. gave him a pledge; same word as Gen 1:14; Gen 9:12, Gen 9:13, Gen 9:17 (token). See also Exo 4:8, Exo 4:9, Exo 4:17, Exo 4:28, Exo 4:30; Exo 12:13. Eze 20:12.
mark
i.e. for Cain’s protection. The law of Gen 9:6 was not yet enacted.
Therefore: 1Ki 16:7, Psa 59:11, Hos 1:4, Mat 26:52
sevenfold: Gen 4:24, Lev 26:18, Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24, Lev 26:28, Psa 79:12, Pro 6:31
set a mark: etc. Or, rather, “gave a sign or token to Cain, that those who found him should not kill him.” Eze 9:4, Eze 9:6, Rev 14:9, Rev 14:11
Reciprocal: Gen 4:14 – that Exo 21:20 – punished Heb 11:4 – faith
Gen 4:15. Whosoever slayeth Cain, &c. God having said, in Cains case, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, it had been a daring usurpation for any man to take the sword out of Gods hand. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain To distinguish him from the rest of mankind. What the mark was, God has not told us: therefore the conjectures of men are vain.
4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, {n} vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a {o} mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
(n) Not for the love he had for Cain, but to suppress murder.
(o) Which was some visible sign of God’s judgment, that others should fear by it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes