Genesis 4:12

You will till the ground to plant crops, but the ground will produce very few [HYP] crops. And you will continually wander around the earth, and not have any place to live permanently.”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

In Context

11You have killed your younger brother, and the ground has soaked up his blood. So now I will expel you from this land and curse your efforts to produce crops.

13Cain replied, “You are punishing me more then I can endure.

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Cross References

Genesis 3:17Then Yahweh said to the man, “You heeded what your wife said, and you ate some of the fruit of the tree concerning which I commanded you saying, ‘Do not eat it.’ So I will make it difficult to grow things in the ground because of what you did. You will have to work hard as long as you live to produce things from the ground to eat.

Leviticus 26:20You will uselessly work very hard to plant seeds, because crops will not grow in the hard soil in your fields, and fruit will not grow on your trees.

Deuteronomy 28:23There will be no rain [MET], with the result that the ground will be as hard as iron [MET].

Psalms 107:34Sometimes he causes land that has produced lots of crops to become salty wastelands, with the result that they do not produce crops. He does that because the people who live there are very wicked.

Proverbs 28:17Those who are guilty of murdering [MTY] another person will ◄be fugitives/keep running away► until they die; do not help them to escape.

Hosea 9:17The people of Israel have not obeyed me, their God, so I will reject them. As a result, they will wander among the other nations, searching for a place to live.”

Matthew Henry on Genesis 4:10-13

Cain's Punishment. ( b. c. 3875.) 9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. We have here a… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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