And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear.
13. And Cain said ] The bitter cry of Cain is not that of repentance for his sin, but of entreaty for the mitigation of his doom.
My punishment ] Better than marg. mine iniquity. The Hebrew word is used to denote both guilt and its penalty, and consequently is sometimes ambiguous, e.g. 1Sa 28:10, “And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall be no punishment happen to thee (marg. guilt come upon thee) for this thing.” In our verse the rendering “punishment” is to be preferred. Cain in Gen 4:14 is thinking of his sentence, not of his sin.
than I can bear ] The rendering of the margin, than can be forgiven, which is that of the versions, though possible, is not to be preferred. It has sometimes been advocated on the ground that the “iniquity” of Cain was typical of the sin “that is unto death” (1Jn 5:16), and that cannot be forgiven (St Mar 3:29). LXX . Lat. major est iniquitas mea quam ut veniam merear. Similarly Targum of Onkelos: cf. Psa 38:4, “As an heavy burden, they [mine iniquities] are too heavy for me.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 4:13-14
My punishment is greater than I can hear
Cains despair
1.
Behold, Thou hast cast me out this day from (or from upon)
the face of the ground. Thou hast driven me! He sees it to be Jehovahs own doing. He who drove Adam out of paradise, now drives Cain out of Eden. Adams sin brought expulsion from the inner circle, Cains from the outer. He is to be cast out from the land where he had been born, where was his home; from the ground which he had tilled. He was now doubly banished; compelled to go forth into an unknown region, without a guide, or a promise, or a hope.
2. From Thy face I shall be hid. Gods face means, doubtless, the Shekinah or manifested glory of Jehovah at the gate of Eden, where Adam and Eve and their children had worshipped, where God was seen by them, where
He met them, and spake to them as from His mercy seat. From this place of Jehovahs presence Cain was to go out. And this depresses him. Not that he really cared for the favour of God, as one in whose favour was life; but still he could not afford to lose it, especially when others were left behind to enjoy it. And all his religious feelings, such as they were, were associated with that spot.
3. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Unchanged from his primeval home, he was now to drift to and fro, he knew not whither. He was to be a leaf driven to and fro, a man without a settlement and without a home. Poor, desolate sinner! And all this is thine own doing! Thy sin has found thee out. Thine own iniquities have taken thee, and thou art holden with the cords of thy sins (Pro 5:22). (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The severity of self-inflicted punishment
The punishment which a man inflicts upon himself is infinitely severer than any punishment that can be inflicted upon him. A wounded spirit who can bear? You remember how you ill-treated that poor child now dead; you saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought you and you would not hear; and now a great distress is come upon you, and your bread is very bitter. Who is punishing you? Not the magistrate. Who then? You are punishing yourself. You cannot forgive yourself. The child touches you at every corner, speaks to you in every dream, moans in every cold wind, and lays its thin pale hand upon you in the hour of riot and excitement. You see that ill-used child everywhere; a shadow on the fair horizon, a background to the face of every other child, a ghastly contrast to everything lovely and fair. Time cannot quench the fire. Events cannot throw into dim distance this tragic fact. It surrounds you, mocks you, defies you, and under its pressure you know the meaning of the words, which no mere grammarian can understand–The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment. All this will come the more vividly before us if we remember that a man who has done wrong has not only to be forgiven, he has to forgive himself. That is the insuperable difficulty. He feels that an external view of his sin, which even the acutest man can take, is altogether partial and incomplete; and, consequently, that any forgiveness which such a man can offer is also imperfect and superficial. That is so philosophically, but, thank God, not evangelically. Gods forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, is not mere forgiveness, however abundant and emphatic. It is not merely a royal or even a paternal edict. It is an act incomplete in itself; it is merely introductory or preparatory, as the uprooting of weeds is preliminary to a better use of the soil. It is an essential act, for in the absence of pardon the soul is absolutely without the life that can lay hold of any of the higher blessings or gifts of God. To what, then, is forgiveness preparatory? To adoption, to communion with God, to absorption into the Divine nature, to the witness of the Holy Ghost. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Impenitent misery
There is a great change since he spoke last, but not for the better. All the difference is, instead of his high tone of insolence, we perceive him sinking into the last stage of depravity, sullen desperation. Behold here a finished picture of impenitent misery. What a contrast to the fifty-first Psalm! There the evil dwelt upon and pathetically lamented is sin; but here is only punishment. See how he expatiates upon it . . . Driven from the face of the earth . . . deprived of Gods favour and blessing, and, in a sort, of the means of hope . . . a wanderer and an outcast from men . . . to all which his fears add, Wherever I am by night or by day, my life will be in perpetual danger! Truly it was a terrible doom, a kind of hell upon earth. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! (A. Fuller.)
Remorse
Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the senate that he suffered death daily; and Trapp tells us of Richard III that, after the murder of his two innocent nephews, he had fearful dreams and visions, would leap out of his bed, and catching his sword, would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. If, therefore, men more or less familiarized with crime and deeds of blood, had the fangs of the serpent ever probing their breasts, is it unreasonable to conclude that Cain knew seasons of sad regrets? If he had not, Gods inquiry soon stirred up the pangs! The cruel Montassar, having assassinated his father, was one day admiring a beautiful painting of a man on horseback, with a diadem encircling his head, and a Persian inscription. Inquiring the significance of the words, he was told that they were: I am Shiunjeh, the son of Kosru, who murdered my father, and possessed the crown only six months. Montassar turned pale, horrors of remorse at once seized on him, frightful dreams interrupted his slumbers until he died. And no sooner did God address the first fratricide, than conscience roused herself to inflict poignant pains:–
Oh, the wrath of the Lord is a terrible thing!
Like the tempest that withers the blossoms of spring,
Like the thunder that bursts on the summers domain,
It fell on the head of the homicide Cain.
Condemnation
Very little idea can be formed of the sufferings of Cain, when we read that God visited him with life-long remorse. John Randolph, in his last illness, said to his doctor: Remorse! Remorse! Remorse! Let me see the word! show it to me in a dictionary. There being none at hand, he asked the surgeon to write it out for him; then, having looked at it carefully, he exclaimed: Remorse! you do not know what it means. Happy are those who never know. It gives, as Dr. Thomas says, a terrible form and a horrible voice to everything beautiful and musical without. It is recorded of Bessus–a native of Polonia, in Greece–that the notes of birds were so insufferable to him, as they never ceased chirping the murder of his father–that he would tear down their nests and destroy both young and old. The music of the sweet songsters of the grove was as the shrieks of hell to a guilty conscience. And how terribly would the familiar things of life become to Cain a source of agony!
The kiss of his children shall scorch him like flame,
When he thinks of the curse that hangs over his name,
And the wife of his bosom–the faithful and fair,
Can mix no sweet drop in his cup of despair:
For her tender caress, and her innocent breath,
But still in his soul the hot embers of death.
Wakeful conscience
Though in many men conscience sleeps in regard to motion, yet it never sleeps in regard to observation and notice. It may be hard and seared, it can never be blind. Like letters written with the juice of lemon, that which is written upon it, though seemingly invisible and illegible, when brought before the fire of Gods judgment shall come forth clear and expressive. (J. MCosh.)
Sin and punishment
Cain said, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Saul, king of Israel, had a minstrel to soothe him when the evil spirit rose within him. King Richard III of England, after he killed his two nephews, had horrible dreams. He thought all the devils in hell, in terrible shapes, were coming to pull him about; and, in his fright, he leaped out of bed, and seized the naked sword which he kept beside him, to find and punish the cause of his trouble. Charles IX, of France, had similar anguish after he had ordered the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
A ruined life
Sailing down the Thames one occasionally sees a green flag, in tatters, inscribed with the word wreck, floating in the breeze over a piece of the mast or the funnel of a steamer which is just visible above the water. How many lives might thus be marked, and how needful that they should be so labelled, lest they prove ruinous to others!
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear.] The margin reads, Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. The original words, gadol avoni minneso, may be translated, Is my crime too great to be forgiven? words which we may presume he uttered on the verge of black despair. It is most probable that avon signifies rather the crime than the punishment; in this sense it is used Le 26:41; Le 26:43; 1Sa 28:10; 2Kg 7:9; and nasa signifies to remit or forgive. The marginal reading is, therefore, to be preferred to that in the text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hebrew, My sin; but sin seems here to be put for punishment, as before, Gen 4:7; 19:15; Lev 5:1; Psa 69:27; Pro 12:21; for Cain was not so sensible of his sin as of the ill effects of it, as himself shows, Gen 4:14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13, 14. And Cain said . . . Mypunishment is greater than I can bearWhat an overwhelmingsense of misery; but no sign of penitence, nor cry for pardon.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Cain said unto the Lord,…. In the anguish of his spirit and the distress of his mind:
my punishment is greater than I can bear; thus complaining of the mercy of God, as if he acted a cruel part, inflicting on him more than he could endure; and arraigning his justice, as if it was more than he deserved, or ought in equity to be laid on him; whereas it was abundantly less than the demerit of his sin, for his punishment was but a temporal one; for, excepting the horrors and terrors of his guilty conscience, it was no other than a heavier curse on the land he tilled, and banishment from his native place, and being a fugitive and wanderer in other countries; and if such a punishment is intolerable, what must the torments of hell be? the worm that never dies? the fire that is never quenched? and the wrath of God, which is a consuming fire, and burns to the lowest hell? some render the words, “my sin is greater than can be forgiven” u; as despairing of the mercy of God, having no faith in the promised seed, and in the pardon of sin through his atonement, blood, and sacrifice; or, “is my sin greater than can be forgiven” w? is there no forgiveness of it? is it the unpardonable sin? but Cain seems not to be so much concerned about sin, and the pardon of it, as about his temporal punishment for it; wherefore the first sense seems best, and best agrees with what follows.
u “major est iniquitas mea, quam ut veniam merear”, V. L. “iniqutas mea? major est quam ut remittatur”, Tigurine version, Fagius; “quam ut remittat, sub. Deus mihi”, Vatablus; so the Targum of Onkelos, Sept. Syr. Ar. w “Ergone majus est delictum meum, quam ut remittatur” Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Cain’s Complaint. | B. C. 3875. |
13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 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.
We have here a further account of the proceedings against Cain.
I. Here is Cain’s complaint of the sentence passed upon him, as hard and severe. Some make him to speak the language of despair, and read it, My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven; and so what he says is a reproach and affront to the mercy of God, which those only shall have the benefit of that hope in it. There is forgiveness with the God of pardons for the greatest sins and sinners; but those forfeit it who despair of it. Just now Cain made nothing of his sin, but now he is in the other extreme: Satan drives his vassals from presumption to despair. We cannot think too ill of sin, provided we do not think it unpardonable. But Cain seems rather to speak the language of indignation: My punishment is greater than I can bear; and so what he says is a reproach and affront to the justice of God, and a complaint, not of the greatness of his sin, but of the extremity of his punishment, as if this were disproportionable to his merits. Instead of justifying God in the sentence, he condemns him, not accepting the punishment of his iniquity, but quarrelling with it. Note, Impenitent unhumbled hearts are therefore not reclaimed by God’s rebukes because they think themselves wronged by them; and it is an evidence of great hardness to be more concerned about our sufferings than about our sins. Pharaoh’s care was concerning this death only, not this sin (Exod. x. 17); so was Cain’s here. He is a living man, and yet complains of the punishment of his sin, Lam. iii. 39. He thinks himself rigorously dealt with when really he is favourably treated; and he cries out of wrong when he has more reason to wonder that he is out of hell. Woe unto him that thus strives with his Maker, and enters into judgment with his Judge. Now, to justify this complaint, Cain descants upon the sentence. 1. He sees himself excluded by it from the favour of his God, and concludes that, being cursed, he is hidden from God’s face, which is indeed the true nature of God’s curse; damned sinners find it so, to whom it is said, Depart from me you cursed. Those are cursed indeed that are forever shut out from God’s love and care and from all hopes of his grace. 2. He sees himself expelled from all the comforts of this life, and concludes that, being a fugitive, he is, in effect, driven out this day from the face of the earth. As good have no place on earth as not have a settled place. Better rest in the grave than not rest at all. 3. He sees himself excommunicated by it, and cut off from the church, and forbidden to attend on public ordinances. His hands being full of blood, he must bring no more vain oblations,Isa 1:13; Isa 1:15. Perhaps this he means when he complains that he is driven out from the face of the earth; for being shut out of the church, which none had yet deserted, he was hidden from God’s face, being not admitted to come with the sons of God to present himself before the Lord. 4. He seen himself exposed by it to the hatred and ill-will of all mankind: It shall come to pass that every one that finds me shall slay me. Wherever he wanders, he goes in peril of his life, at least he thinks so; and, like a man in debt, thinks every one he meets a bailiff. There were none alive but his near relations; yet even of them he is justly afraid who had himself been so barbarous to his brother. Some read it, Whatsoever finds me shall slay me; not only, “Whosoever among men,” but, “Whatsoever among all the creatures.” Seeing himself thrown out of God’s protection, he sees the whole creation armed against him. Note, Unpardoned guilt fills men with continual terrors, Pro 28:1; Job 15:20-21; Psa 53:5. It is better to fear and not sin than to sin and then fear. Dr. Lightfoot thinks this word of Cain should be read as a wish: Now, therefore, let it be that any that find me may kill me. Being bitter in soul, he longs for death, but it comes not (Job iii. 20-22), as those under spiritual torments do, Rev. ix. 5, 6.
II. Here is God’s confirmation of the sentence; for when he judges he will overcome, v. 15. Observe, 1. How Cain is protected in wrath by this declaration, notified, we may suppose, to all that little world which was then in being: Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold, because thereby the sentence he was under (that he should be a fugitive and a vagabond) would be defeated. Condemned prisoners are under the special protection of the law; those that are appointed sacrifices to public justice must not be sacrificed to private revenge. God having said in Cain’s case, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, it would have been a daring usurpation for any man to take the sword out of God’s hand, a contempt put upon an express declaration of God’s mind, and therefore avenged seven-fold. Note, God has wise and holy ends in protecting and prolonging the lives even of very wicked men. God deals with some according to that prayer, Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power, Ps. lix. 11. Had Cain been slain immediately, he would have been forgotten (Eccl. viii. 10); but now he lives a more fearful and lasting monument of God’s justice, hanged in chains, as it were. 2. How he is marked in wrath: The Lord set a mark upon Cain, to distinguish him from the rest of mankind and to notify that he was the man that murdered his brother, whom nobody must hurt, but every body must hoot at. God stigmatized him (as some malefactors are burnt in the cheek), and put upon him such a visible and indelible mark of infamy and disgrace as would make all wise people shun him, so that he could not be otherwise than a fugitive and a vagabond, and the off-scouring of all things.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
13. My punishment is greater, etc. Nearly all commentators agree that this is the language of desperation; because Cain, confounded by the judgment of God, had no remaining hope of pardon. And this, indeed, is true, that the reprobate are never conscious of their evils, till a ruin, from which they cannot escape, overtakes them; yea, truly, when the sinner, obstinate to the last, mocks the patience of God, this is the due reward of his late repentance that he feels a horrible torment for which there is no remedy, — if, truly, that blind and astonished dread of punishments which is without any hatred of sin, or any desire to return to God, can be called repentance; — so even Judas confesses his sin, but, overwhelmed with fear, flies as far as possible from the presence of God. And it is certainly true, that the reprobates have no medium; as long as any relaxation is allowed them, they slumber securely; but when the anger of God presses upon them, they are broken rather than corrected. Therefore their fear stuns them, so that they can think of nothing but of hell and eternal destruction. However, I doubt not, that the words have another meaning. For I rather take the term עון aoon in its proper signification; and the word נשא nasa, I interpret by the word to bear. ‘A greater punishment (he says) is imposed upon me than I can bear.’ In this manner, Cain, although he does not excuse his sin, having been driven from every shift; yet complains of the intolerable severity of his judgement. So also the devils, although they feel that they are justly tormented, yet do not cease to rage against God their judge, and to charge him with cruelty. And immediately follows the explanation of these words: ‘Behold, thou hast driven me from the face of the earth, and I am hidden from thy face.’ (248) In which expression he openly expostulates with God, that he is treated more hardly than is just, no clemency or moderation being shown him. For it is precisely as if he had said, ‘If a safe habitation is denied me in the world, and thou dost not deign to care for me, what dost thou leave me? Would it not be better to die at once than to be constantly exposed to a thousand deaths?’ Whence we infer, that the reprobate, however clearly they may be convicted, make no end of storming; insomuch that through their impatience and fury, they seize on occasions of contest; as if they were able to excite enmity against God on account of the severity of their own sufferings. This passage also clearly teaches what was the nature of that wandering condition, or exile, which Moses had just mentioned; namely, that no corner of the earth should be left him by God, in which he might quietly repose. For, being excluded from the common rights of mankind, so as to be no more reckoned among the legitimate inhabitants of the earth, he declares that he is cast out from the face of the earth, and therefore shall become a fugitive, because the earth will deny him a habitation; hence it would be necessary, that he should occupy as a robber, what he did not possess by right. To be ‘hidden from the face of God,’ is to be not regarded by God, or not protected by his guardian care. This confession also, which God extorted from the impious murderer, is a proof that there is no peace for men, unless they acquiesce in the providence of God, and are persuaded that their lives are the object of his care; it is also a proof, that they can only quietly enjoy any of God’s benefits so long as they regard themselves as placed in the world, on this condition, that they pass their lives under his government. How wretched then is the instability of the wicked, who know that not a foot of earth is granted to them by God!
(248) “ Ecce repulisti me a facie terrae, et a facie tua abscondar.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13, 14) My punishment (or my iniquity) is greater than I can bear.Literally, than can be borne, or forgiven. It is in accordance with the manner of the Hebrew language to have only one word for an act and its result. Thus work and wages are expressed by the same word in Isa. 62:11. The full meaning, therefore, is, My sin is past forgiveness, and its result is an intolerable punishment. This latter idea seems foremost in Cains mind, and is dwelt upon in Gen. 4:14. He there complains that he is driven, not from the face of the earth, which was impossible, but from the admh, his dear native soil, banished from which, he must go into the silence and solitude of an earth unknown and untracked. And next, from thy face shall I be hid. Naturally, Cain had no idea of an omnipresent God, and away from the admh he supposed that it would be impossible to enjoy the Divine favour and protection. Without this there would be no safety for him anywhere, so that he must rove about perpetually, and every one that findeth me shall slay me. In the admh Jehovah would protect him; away from it, men, unseen by Jehovah, might do as they liked. But who were these men? Some commentators answer, Adams other sons, especially those who had attached themselves to Abel. Others say that Adams creation was not identical with that of Gen. 1:27, but was that of the highest type of the human race, and had been preceded by the production of inferior races, of whose existence there are widespread proofs. But others, with more probability, think that Cains was a vain apprehension. How could he know that Adam and his family were the sole inhabitants of the earth? Naturally he expected to find farther on what he had left behind; a man and woman with stalwart sons: and that these, regarding him as an interloper come to rob them, and seeing in his ways proof of guilt, would at once attack and slay him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. My punishment is greater than I can bear The words thus rendered will bear two interpretations, that given in the text, and that of the margin: My sin is greater than can be forgiven . Both interpretations are very ancient, and both yield a pertinent sense; but the next verse, in which Cain goes on to bewail the greatness of his curse, sustains the view that Cain deplored his punishment more than his sin . Both views, however, may be so far united as to show that in the murderer’s soul there was a mingling of guilt, sorrow, and dismay .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is beyond bearing.” ’
Cain can only think of the consequences for himself of his sin. There is no repentance, only regret over what he has lost. How can he cope with a life of loneliness and wandering, ever afraid of every kinsman he meets? Living in terror that he will be hunted down in vengeance.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Cain’s Punishment
Gen 4:13
My object is to show, so far as I may be able, some of the necessary consequences of sin, and to point out how those consequences prove the terribleness of wrong-doing. Sometimes we know a thing better by its consequences than by its essence. I think this is particularly the case with sin. It may require great intellectual power to see sin as sin, but the consequences of sin show themselves in glaring and appalling clearness to the dullest eyes. If, then, any man would really know the sinfulness of sin let him study its effects upon himself, and look at its consequences within the circle with which he is most familiar.
Have you ever noticed the effect of a wicked thought in its swift passage through the brain? I have alas, too often! in my own case. I have been in high intellectual health one moment, and in the next I have been thrown down as by an invisible bolt of fire; that invisible bolt was a wicked thought ; an idea that flashed through the mind and was never known to any but God. I had suffered great loss. The brain was stunned, and for the moment it lost the fine delicate power of moving with ease through difficult questions and high speculations. Its most exquisite threads had lost their tension, and its bloom mouldered and perished. You cannot explain this fully to any one who has not felt it. But you who have felt loss of memory, a sensation of dizziness, and painful uncertainty in mental exercises; you who have turned giddy where once you stood like a rock, and have stammered where once you spoke with determined emphasis; you know what I mean by the sad effects of melancholy thought upon intellectual completeness and power; and in that desolating hour you may have said with infinite bitterness “My punishment is more than I can bear.”
But sin is moral rather than intellectual, and its moral consequences may be considered as more marked and terrible than the intellectual results. This is actually the case. Sin lures a man to his destruction. It eats out his soul piece by piece. If there is such a thing as a moral nerve it softens, crumples, wastes, kills it, and then it gets the whole man into its unholy and cruel dominion.
Take a lie, and trace what may be called its natural history. First of all, the man must lie to himself, note that fact carefully, if you please. In getting his own consent to the lie, the man told the lie to himself. In that moment he impoverished his vitality, and prepared himself to go the next step, and when he went the next step he became so weak that he could be driven to any length on the road of wickedness. Thus he exposed himself to a new attack he came within the humbling and shattering influence of fear. “The righteous are bold as a lion”; but loss of righteousness is loss of boldness. Here, then, is an intolerable punishment. The scourge of fear is always lacerating the bad man. Beckon him, and his knees knock together by reason of false alarm. Turn suddenly upon him, and he feels a sword cutting through his very heart He flees, “when no man pursueth,” and a great shadow lies coldly across his merriest feast. This is punishment. It is a punishment that never ceases When the wicked man goes to rest his pillow is too hard for his throbbing head. If he fall into troubled slumber, an unexpected tap at his door will be to him as an earthquake, or as a call to sudden judgment. And he never gets the better of this. Indeed, he gets worse and worse, until his own shadow frightens him, and his own voice seems to be calling for his detection and punishment. His punishment is greater than he can bear; its reality is great, but its imagination is infinite! Hell, in its most terrible and revolting aspect, becomes simply the natural and proper end of sin. If we could think ourselves back into a state of innocence, it would probably be impossible to us to create, even imaginatively, the idea of hell. It would not come within the region or range of our thinking. It would be like something that required an additional sense to apprehend or lay hold of it But let that innocence be lost let the soul stray from its sacred sanctuary let it lose its hold upon God and instantly hell opens, and hell is felt to be the proper end of sin. The sinner creates his own hell.
Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” We sometimes say that punishment should be proportioned to sin. There is a sense in which that is most true and just It is most true and just with regard to all punishment that comes from the outside. It is a law which must be obeyed by the parent, the magistrate, and every wronged or offended man. But this is by no means the limit of the question. The punishment which a man inflicts upon himself is infinitely severer than any punishment that can be inflicted upon him. “A wounded spirit who can bear?” You remember how you ill-treated that poor child now dead; you saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought you and you would not hear; and now a great distress is come upon you, and your bread is very bitter. Who is punishing you? Not the magistrate. Who then? You are punishing yourself. You cannot forgive yourself. The child touches you at every corner, speaks to you in every dream, moans in every cold wind, and lays its thin pale hand upon you in the hour of riot and excitement. You see that ill-used child everywhere; a shadow on the fair horizon, a background to the face of every other child, a ghastly contrast to everything lovely and fair. Time cannot quench the fire. Events cannot throw into dim distance this tragic fact. It surrounds you, mocks you, defies you, and under its pressure you know the meaning of the words, which no mere grammarian can understand “The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment.”
All this will come the more vividly before us if we remember that a man who has done wrong has not only to be forgiven, he has to forgive himself. That is the insuperable difficulty. He feels that any external view of his sin, which even the acutest man can take, is altogether partial and incomplete; and, consequently, that any forgiveness which such a man can offer is also imperfect and superficial. And even in relation to God the same difficulty arises, notwithstanding the completeness of his view as the necessity of his omniscience. To have grieved a Being so good, so holy, as God, is felt to be a crime that ought not to be forgiven, and that his mercy can only be extended at the expense of his righteousness. But to this we must return presently.
Have you ever watched the deteriorating effects of sin even upon the personal appearance? Take a youth of extreme beauty, and let him, little by little, be led into wicked practices; in proportion as he is so led will the register of his descent be written upon his face, and upon his whole attitude and manner. Quite imperceptibly, I admit, but with awful exactness and depth. The eye, once so clear and so steady in its look, will be marked by suspicion, uncertainty, or timidity of movement; its glances will not be like sun rays darting through thick foliage, but rather like a dark lantern turned on skilfully to see what is happening here and there, but throwing no light on the man who holds it. And strange lines will be woven around the mouth; and the lips, so well-cut, so guileless and generous, will be tortured into ugliness and sensual enlargement; and the voice, once so sweet, so ringing, the very music of a character unstained and fearless, will contract some mocking tones, and give itself up to a rude laughter, partly deceitful and partly defiant. All this will not happen in one day. Herein is the subtlety of evil. If you do not see the youth for years you may be shocked when you miss the fine simplicity and noble bearing which you associated with his name. This is part of the man’s punishment. It is the spot of leprosy on a forehead once so open and unwrinkled, and it will grow and spread and deepen until there be no place fit for him but the silent and inhospitable wilderness.
This punishment, too, seems to get into a man’s business and house. It lowers the high discipline which once ruled and ennobled them, and substitutes trickery and eye-service for the better law which once prevailed. Everywhere it touches and debases the sinner; to his very walk it imparts a swagger or a slouch, significant of debased character, and every relation of life it perverts, disennobles, and defiles.
Now a meditation of this kind might well drive us to despair, if there be nothing else to be said. Sin can only aggravate itself and relieve our torment by plunging into some still deeper excess. Where, then, is hope to be found? If there is any way of escape, let us have it pointed out so clearly that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.
I have said that even God’s forgiveness, strictly in itself, does not meet the case of a man being unable to forgive himself. That is so, philosophically, but, thank God, not evangelically. God’s forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, is not mere forgiveness, however abundant and emphatic. It is not merely a royal or even paternal edict. It is an act incomplete in itself; it is merely introductory or preparatory, as the uprooting of weeds is preliminary to a better use of the soil. It is an essential act, for in the absence of pardon the soul is absolutely without the life that can lay hold of any of the higher blessings or gifts of God. To what, then, is forgiveness preparatory? To adoption, to communion with God, to absorption into the Divine nature, to the witness of the Holy Ghost. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” And if in moments of special trial “our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.” You will see, then, that if it was merely an act of forgiveness, it would be quite true that man would be unable to forgive himself; but it is “assurance,” it is “sonship,” it is joy of the Holy Ghost. “There is, therefore, now no condemnation, to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “To be spiritually minded is life and peace.” “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” Thus the soul is flooded with joy. Its daily song is of victory. It is stirred, and ruled, and gladdened by a mysterious and indestructible sense of triumph, for the grace of the blessed and infinite Christ fills the whole heart with sweet content and immortal hope.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Gen 4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear.
Ver. 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear. ] Or, mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. In either sense he sins exceedingly, and worse perhaps than in slaying his brother, whether he murmur against God’s justice, or despair of his mercy. Mine iniquity is greater, &c. Mentiris, Cain , saith a Father. Cain did not say so, because it was so; but it was so, because he said so. Despair is Satan’s masterpiece; it carries men headlong to hell, as the devils did the herd of swine into the deep; witness Guarlacus, Bomelius, Latomus of Lovain, Johannes de Canis, our English Hubertus, a covetous oppressor, who made this will, – I yield my goods to the king, my body to the grave, my soul to the devil. Pope Paul III., that spent his time in filthy pleasures, after that he had heard of the death of his son Petrus Aloisius, died in a peevish rage, and crying out in despair, Peccatum meum contra me semper, My sin is ever against me; and so gave up the ghost. a
a Act. and Mon ., fol. 1908. Gellius in Dialog. Secundo Chimaerico . Willet on Daniel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
punishment = iniquity. Hebrew. ‘aven. See App-44. For “my punishment”, &c, read “Is mine iniquity too great to be forgiven? “with Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Targum of Onkelos, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Greek and Latin Fathers.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My punishment is greater than I can bear. or, Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. Job 15:22, Rev 16:9, Rev 16:11, Rev 16:21
Reciprocal: 2Ki 3:10 – the Lord 2Ki 6:33 – this evil is of the Lord Lam 3:39 – a man Eze 14:10 – they shall Eze 16:58 – hast Eze 44:10 – bear 2Co 7:10 – the sorrow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 4:13-14. Cain said, My punishment (Hebrews my sin) is greater than I can bear Sin, however, seems to be put for punishment, as it is Gen 4:7, and in many other places. For Cain was not so sensible of his sin, as of the miserable effects of it, as appears from the next verse, where, to justify his complaint, he descants upon the sentence, observing, 1st, That he was excluded by it from the favour of God: that, being cursed, he was hid from Gods face, which is indeed the true nature of Gods curse, as they will find to whom God shall say, Depart from me, ye cursed. 2d, That he was expelled from all the comforts of this life; driven out from the face of the earth, and hid from Gods face Shut out from the church, and not admitted to come with the sons of God to present himself before the Lord. And, adds he, every one that finds me shall slay me Wherever he goes, he goes in peril of his life. There were none alive but his near relations, yet even of them he is justly afraid, who had himself been so barbarous to his own brother.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, {m} My punishment [is] greater than I can bear.
(m) He burdens God as a cruel judge because he punished him so severely.