Genesis 4:6–15

⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious?^p And why do you look despondent? ⁷If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”^q

⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”^B And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.^r

⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

¹⁰Then he said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!^{s 11}So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed.^{C 12}If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”^t

¹³But Cain answered the Lord, “My punishment^D is too great to bear! ¹⁴Since you are banishing me today from the face of the earth, and I must hide from your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.”^a. ¹⁵Then the Lord replied to him, “In that case,^E whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” And he placed a mark^b on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.