[EGW editor's preface:  One of our readers sent in the following question: “Why did God promise a sevenfold vengeance for Cain?  We are studying Genesis and were wondering this.  Since nothing in the Bible is coincidence, the sevenfold vengeance must have some meaning, right?”  As with any question concerning what we hope to learn from the Bible, we must always strive to apply good hermeneutics and to let the Bible interpret itself.
     (For more tips on good Bible-reading skills, click the subjects Hermeneutics and Bible study)]

(skip explanation and go straight to the meaning)

• The context in Scripture:
     
     Our reader’s question relates to a promise God made to Cain in Genesis 4:15.  Let’s quickly review verses one through fifteen of that chapter (Genesis 4:1-15) to see the context of that promise.  We will discuss the context, and then discuss the meaning of the promise.
     Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”  Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.  Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.  Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.  And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering.  And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
     So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
     Now Cain talked with Abel his brother;  and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
     Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
     He said, “I do not know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”
     And He said, “What have you done?  The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.  So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you.  A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
     And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!  Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground;  I shall be hidden from Your face;  I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
     And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.”  And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

• Digging into the Scriptures:

     Of the many stories most people learn as children from the Bible in church and Sunday School, the story of Cain and Abel is probably among the earliest they hear.  We would do well to explore and consider all the surprisingly subtle lessons to be learned here.  The first time I read this story many years ago, the lesson seemed simply to be about lying and murder.  However, now I understand the main point of this story is about showing plainly from the beginning the patterns of how God treats sinners and how sinners treat God.  Of course, within that theme are several smaller lessons including the one about lying and murder.

     Concerning the sacrifices Abel and Cain offered, we are not told here what instructions God gave them.  We are told that “the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering.”  When I was little, I thought God was basing His respect for the person upon the offering, but I was mistaken.  The passage doesn’t say “because,” but it does say “and.”  Typically in the Bible, when people and/or items are briefly listed like this, the more important is listed first.  (The “what’s important” for a particular list ordering usually depends upon the purpose of the list.  For example in Genesis 11:26, Terah is 70 when he started having children and his three childred are listed by name.  In this case, Abram is listed first because he is the most important of the three children to the message of Genesis – not because he is the oldest since Terah was actually about 130¹ when Abram was born.)
     Abel and Cain are each listed before his offering because people are more important to God than their offerings.  Understanding this, we can see that the Lord based His respect for each man’s offering upon His respect for the man which in turn reflected the man’s respect for Him.  
     What kind of men were Abel and Cain?  In Matthew 23:35, Jesus refers to Abel as “righteous.”  Jude 11 refers to Cain as greedy.  1 John 3:12-15 describes Cain’s works as wicked and evil, and Abel’s as righteous.  It would seem that Abel’s offering pleased God because Abel pleased God, and Cain’s offering did not please God because Cain did not please God.  Unfortunately, many religious people today still have similar trouble pleasing God with their offerings.
     Throughout the book of Malachi (the last book in the Old Testament) the priests and the people blame God for not respecting them ... for not giving them His stamp of approval and acceptance ... and God has to explain that the real problem is they don’t respect Him.  His point is quite clear in chapter 1, verse 10.  “‘Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain?  I have no pleasure in you,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.’”  Clearly God refuses to respect & accept worship from people who fail to respect Him.  
     Cain had the same problem … a lack of proper respect for the Lord.  He was angry, not with himself for failing to please God, but with God for holding back His stamp of approval.  At the same time, he was also embarrassed because Abel knew of his rejected offering (just as he knew of Abel’s accepted sacrifice).  Would Abel tell their parents and others what had happened?  

     What happened next is a classic crime scenario — Cain planned to cover-up an embarrassing problem by eliminating the witness before he told anyone.  But then God confronted him by demonstrating His all-knowing nature as well as His love for people.  The Lord very gently warned Cain to turn back from his plans while he still had time.  In other words, God kindly gave him a chance to repent!  
     But, Cain demonstrated his lack of respect for God by going ahead with his deadly plans.  In verse 8 Cain talked with Abel (according to my Bible’s footnote here, the Septuagint and some ancient manuscripts include “Let us go out to the field”).  While in the field, Abel was murdered by his older brother, and his body was probably hidden or buried to avoid discovery.
     Later, the Lord asked Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”  What a quiet and gentle invitation for Cain to confess his crime and to became right with God again!!  Unfortunately, instead of recognizing this truly God-given opportunity, he chose to lie and denied any involvement or responsibility for his younger brother’s whereabouts.  Upon this denial, God forced Cain to confront what he had done, and pronounced a curse upon him.

     Notice this judgment by God concerned Cain’s physical future and not his spiritual future.  “Cursed from the earth ...” and “A fugitive and vagabond you shall be on the earth.” simply means that his punishment was to be exiled from acceptable society and to be treated as a homeless criminal on the run.  (Today we often remove criminals from acceptable society by exiling them to prison for a time.)  Understanding this, we can understand why the ground he tilled shouldn't yield its strength (i.e. harvest) to him — the god-fearing people around him would chase him away from their presence, and so he wouldn’t have the opportunity.  This punishment is of a civil or legal nature, not moral or spiritual.  Thanks to his foolish denial, it became too late for Cain to escape this earthly exile, but he was still alive and still had opportunity to please God and to live in God’s presence.
     Cain’s complaint about this punishment being too harsh mocked God.  It expressed a lack of gratitude for God’s leniency and showed that he was not interested in pleasing God.  Then while acknowledging the earthly judgment of God, Cain expanded it into a spiritual judgment.  “I shall be hidden from Your face,” he said in verse 14 and then fullfilled this himself in verse 16 when he “went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod ... .”  
     The significance of “went out from the presence of the LORD” is much more than simply moving into a unsettled territory away from other people.  It also means that he gave up worshipping the true God and began worshipping man-made gods.  In Deuteronomy 31:18, God told Moses what would happen whenever the Israelites turned away from God — “And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.”  “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;” we learn in Isaiah 59:1-2, “nor His ear heavy, that is cannot hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God;  and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
     A similar thought from God is found in Isaiah 1:15, but in verse 18-20 we also discover that God is willing to be reasonable with sinners... if they repent.  The Lord simply exiled Cain away from acceptable society, but Cain was the one who exiled himself away from God.

     Cain’s complaint that “anyone who finds me will kill me.” also showed his lack of respect for God.  God’s civil judgment for him did not include a lethal execution.  Therefore, people were only authorized to chase him away, not to kill him.  His complaint mocked God by implying that God could not properly enforce His judgment.  
     Unspoken, but also implied, is the accusation of God as being unfair because He punished Cain for murdering a righteous man, but He wouldn’t punish a man who murdered a murderer.  Likewise, here is Cain’s unspoken demand that whoever kills Cain deserves to be killed.  Through this intimidation toward the Lord, Cain is telling God how to judge.  (Can you see Cain’s hypocrisy and selfish double-standard?  These same attitudes are reflected in his descendant Lamech when he mocks God in Genesis 4:23,24.)  
     At this point, the Lord makes Cain His promise of seven-fold vengeance and puts an identifying mark on Cain.

• The meaning of the promise and the mark: (back to beginning of article)
     
     “And the LORD said to him, ‘Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’  And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.”  
     How can a person be physically exiled seven times more thoroughly from godly society than God exiled Cain?  Or, how a person be physically killed as a punishment more than once?  They can not.  “Sevenfold” must be a figure of speech rather than a literal description of the vengeance.
     As a figure of speech² in the Bible, “seven” comes from adding “three,” a number representing spiritual perfection or completion, and “four,” a number representing physical perfection or completion.  Therefore, “seven” is a “complete” or “perfect” number representing both spiritual and physical.  Applied to the vengeance, Cain was being told it would be sufficiently enough, not too much and not too little, in regards to whatever heavenly and/or earthly standards that applied.
     By promising sevenfold vengeance to Cain, God accomplished at least three things.  1) Cain was rebuked to mind his manners about Who is really in charge and Who is really the judge.  2) God re-affirmed that His earthly judgment upon Cain was exile, not death, and no person could challenge that judgment without challenging God’s earthly and heavenly authority.  3) If someone did murder Cain, the Lord guaranteed the punishment would be adequately and appropriately complete ... just like His punishment of Cain for murdering Abel was adequately and appropriately complete.
     The mark God set on Cain ... and we have no way to know exactly what it was ... identified him, to anyone encountering him, both as Cain the fugitive & vagabond and as one under God’s protection.

     ¹ EGW editor's note:  For more information about dating people and events in Genesis, see the article Genesis Timeline. (back to place in article)
     ² EGW editor's note:  For more articles about figures of speech and figurative language, see the subject Figures of Speech. (back to place in article)