Cain and Abel: A Story of Rebellion, Judgment, and Grace
The story of Cain and Abel is one of sibling rivalry and murder. It’s shocking to realize that there is only one generation between the Bible’s story of creation and the first homicide. Mankind’s descent into sinfulness was fast and severe.
Cain and Abel each bring God a sacrifice. When God shows disappointment in Cain’s sacrifice and pleasure in Abel’s, Cain kills Abel with a stone.
God confronts Cain about murdering his brother. Cain lies about it. And God exiles him to the land of Nod, east of Eden.
This brief account in the Bible is just 16 verses long, but it paints a powerful picture of sin, judgment, and surprisingly, grace. Renowned Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman III explores this famous passage in his online course on Genesis.
The following post is adapted from…
Hebrew and You with Lee M. Fields — Do Not Kill or Do Not Murder (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17)?
Murder, defined as unlawful and premeditated killing of another person, is commonly deemed to be wrong. There are some, however, who believe all killing is unlawful and therefore wrong, and some Bible-believing people base this on the KJV translation of Exod 20:13, “Thou shalt not kill.” This creates a tension within the OT, however, since the Israelites are commanded to kill, whether it be enemy nations or perpetrators of certain crimes. Other Modern translations render the command, “You shall not murder” (NIV, NASB, ESV, NRSV, etc.). This alleviates the tension, but might it lead to other confusion instead?
The commandment in Exod 20:13 is only two Hebrew words: לֹא תִּרְצָח (lōʾ tirṣāḥ). The negative particle לֹא is the general negative making the prohibition permanent (see the March 2015 column, No “Yes,” But Two Nos: Zechariah 1:4). The question…