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[Handsome]

Is Cain better off after murdering Abel than before?

The relevant verses are Genesis 4:8-17.

I've created an elaborate, highly detailed table to summarize the consequences of Cain murdering Abel:

Cain before murdering Abel:

• Lives in Eden, which has already fallen.
• Can grow crops.
• Can be killed by humans.

Cain after murdering Abel

• Must leave Eden. Which, again, has already fallen.
• Can't grow crops. Can simply have others do it for him. One less job to do.
• Can't be killed by humans.

And that's really all there is to it. Verse 12 (NIV) also mentions that Cain was cursed as "restless wanderer", but that obviously didn't hold since he goes straight from Eden and lives in Nod (verse 16). Then at the end Cain settles down with a wife and kid (verse 17), builds a "city", and lives happily ever after - at least that's how it reads to me. Am I missing something? It seems like God essentially lets Cain get away with murder, and His "curse" doesn't do much of anything.

[jimwalton]

Great set of questions. Let's look at what's really going on. The curse is not perceived as positive or "better off" by Cain (Gn. 4.13), which should be an indicator to you that you are not seeing it as Cain did. The agony Cain feels is

• Being driven from the land indicates that survival will be much harder for Cain. Food will not come as easily in his direction.
• He will be hidden from God's presence (4.14). This is really the most severe consequence of Adam & Eve's sin, and it is perceived as a dire punishment by Cain. To be without God is realistically seen as a horrible fate.
• He will be a restless wanderer. In a culture that values community and belonging, he will be detached and shunned. Again, survival will be much harder.
• He will live in fear (4.14). Before he could have been killed, as anyone can, but the odds were against it. Now he fears either restitution for what he has done or just being a victim of crime since he would be on his own and not with a protective tribal group or family. When the Lord promises to protect him from that, He is saying that Cain will have to live his whole life with the consequences of what he has done; a quick death will not be there to bring him release.

So let's look, then, at what Cain does.

• He starts a family to try to ward off aloneness. We learn that his family are evil and wicked people (4.19). He may still live in fear for all we know.
• He builds a city for his provision and protection. It's an act of defiance against God (as was the murder) but also of self-preservation. He has to provide for himself since he no longer trusts God to provide for him. The implication from the previous verses is that survival is far more work than it otherwise would have been for him.

I wouldn't easily draw the conclusion that Cain lives "happily ever after." Genesis 6 indicates that the world became a violent, corrupt, dangerous place, and Cain would be struggling to live and would be perpetually living in fear. That's the implication of the text, in any case.