Genesis 4:7

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?.... That is, either if thou doest thy works well in general, doest good works in a right way and manner, according to life will of God, and directed to

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?

If thou doest well, or, for the future shalt do well, i.e. repent of thy sin, amend thy life, offer thy offerings with a willing and cheerful mind and honest heart, in faith and love, as Abel did, shalt thou not be accepted? Or, pardoned, received into favour? Or, exalted, and either preserved in or restored unto those rights of the first-born, which thou art conscious to thyself that thou hast forfeited? Or, elevated in thy looks, i.e. would not, or should not, thy countenance have been upright and pleasant, which now is sad and dejected? Sin is here taken, either, 1. Properly; so the sense is: Sin will be growing upon thee; one sin will bring in another, and that malice and purpose of revenge against thy brother, which now lies hid in the secret chamber of thy mind and heart, lies at the door ready to break forth into the view of the world in open murder. Or, 2. For the punishment of sin, as it is taken 20:20 : so the sense is, If thou wilt go on in sin, and execute thy wicked purpose, which I perceive lies working in thy heart, be sure thy sin will find thee out, as it is said . Thou shalt not long enjoy the fruits of thy wickedness, but a dreadful judgment shall tread upon the heels of thy sin, and lie like a furious mastiff dog at the very door of thy house, to seize upon thee at thy first coming in or going out. For that person or thing which is very near to us, or at hand, is said to be at the doors, . Unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Those two clauses may relate either, 1. To sin, which may he here spoken of as a person, as it is , &c. So the place may be rendered and expounded thus, The desire of sin is to thee, i.e. to assault, seduce, conquer, and destroy thee; as it is said, , Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you, & c. Or thus, its desire, objectively, not subjectively taken, i.e. thy desire, intention, or resolution of sinning, that evil motion of thy heart against thy brother, shall be against (as the Hebrew particle el oft signifies) thee, i.e. howsoever at present it pleaseth thee, yet it is really not only against him, but against thyself, and will certainly turn to thy own ruin; but (for so the particle and is commonly taken) if thou be wise, give no place to it, but resist it, do thou rule (for the future tense is oft put imperatively, as in the ten commandments, and it frequently signifies not what a man can or shall do, but his duty or what he ought to do, as is evident from ) over it, i.e. conquer and subdue it, which is thy duty; or, thou shalt rule over it, i.e.

Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.Ver. 7. Sin lies at the door.] Like a great bandog, ready to pull out the throat of thy soul, if thou but look over the hatch. Say this dog lie asleep for a while, yet the door is for continual pass and repass, and so no fit place for any long sleep. Your sin will surely find you out, saith Moses, as a bloodhound, and haunt you like a hell hag, as the heathen could say, Nemo crimen gerit in pectore, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. A late divine by sin here understandeth a sin offering, and telleth us, that as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam, so here he reads the first lecture of repentance to Cain, under the doctrine of a sin offering; telling him, that if he did well, he should certainly be accepted; and though he did not well, yet a sin offering lies at the door; if he repented, there was hope of pardon. Nemesis dicitur Aδπαστεια, quod nemo eam effugere possit . D. Lightfoot. Resipiscenti remissio, pertinaci supplicium imminet, idque proximum et praesentissimum. - Jun.

(7) If thou doest well.—This most difficult verse is capable of a satisfactory interpretation, provided that we refuse to admit into this ancient narrative the ideas of a subsequent age. Literally, the words mean, If thou doest well, is there not lifting up? It had just been said that his countenance fell; and this lifting up is often elsewhere applied to the countenance. (Comp. Job 10:15; Job 11:15.) “Instead, then, of thy present gloomy despondent mood, in which thou goest about with downcast look, thou shalt lift up thy head, and have peace and good temper beaming in thine eyes as the result of a quiet conscience.” The second half of the verse is capable of two meanings. First: “if thou doest not well, sin lieth (croucheth as a beast of prey) at the door, and its desire is to thee, to make thee its victim; but thou shalt rule over it, and overcome the temptation.” The objection to this is: that while sin is feminine, the verb and pronouns are masculine. There are, indeed, numerous instances of a verb masculine with a noun feminine, but the pronouns are fatal, though most Jewish interpreters adopt this feeble explanation. The other interpretation is: “If thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door, that is, lies dangerously near thee, and puts thee in peril. Beware, therefore, and stand on thy guard; and then his desire shall be unto thee, and thou shalt rule over him. At present thou art vexed and envious because thy younger brother is rich and prosperous, while thy tillage yields thee but scanty returns. Do well, and the Divine blessing will rest on thee, and thou wilt recover thy rights of primogeniture, and thy brother will look up to thee in loving obedience.” (Comp. the loving subjection of the wife in Genesis 3:16.) We have in this verse proof of a struggle in Cain’s conscience. Abel was evidently outstripping him in wealth; his flocks were multiplying, and possibly his younger brothers were attaching themselves to him in greater numbers than to Cain. Moreover, there was a more marked moral growth in him, and his virtue and piety were more attractive than Cain’s harsher disposition. This had led to envy and malice on the part of Cain, increased, doubtless, by the favour of God shown to Abel’s sacrifice; but he seems to have resisted these evil feelings. Jehovah would not have remonstrated thus kindly with him had he been altogether reprobate. Possibly, too, for a time he prevailed over his evil tempers. It is a gratuitous assumption that the murder followed immediately upon the sacrifice. The words of the Almighty rather show that repentance was still possible, and that Cain might still recover the Divine favour, and thereby regain that pre-eminence which was his by right of primogeniture, but which he felt that he was rapidly losing by Abel’s prosperity and more loving ways.

Verse 7. If thou doest well] That which is right in the sight of God, shalt thou not be accepted? Does God reject any man who serves him in simplicity and godly sincerity? But if thou doest not well, can wrath and indignation against thy righteous brother save thee from the displeasure under which thou art fallen? On the contrary, have recourse to thy Maker for mercy; לפתח חטאת רבץ lappethach chattath robets, a sin-offering lieth at thy door; an animal proper to be offered as an atonement for sin is now couching at the door of thy fold. The words חטאת chattath, and חטאת chattaah, frequently signify sin; but I have observed more than a hundred places in the Old Testament where they are used for sin-offering, and translated αμαρτια by the Septuagint, which is the term the apostle uses, Genesis 4:2; Genesis 5:21: He hath made him to be sin (αμαρτιαν, A SIN-OFFERING) for us, who knew no sin. Cain's fault now was his not bringing a sin-offering when his brother brought one, and his neglect and contempt caused his other offering to be rejected. However, God now graciously informs him that, though he had miscarried, his case was not yet desperate, as the means of faith, from the promise, &c., were in his power, and a victim proper for a sin-offering was lying (רבץ robets, a word used to express the lying down of a quadruped) at the door of his fold. How many sinners perish, not because there is not a Saviour able and willing to save them, but because they will not use that which is within their power! Of such how true is that word of our Lord, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life! Unto thee shall be his desire, &c.] That is, Thou shalt ever have the right of primogeniture, and in all things shall thy brother be subject unto thee. These words are not spoken of sin, as many have understood them, but of Abel's submission to Cain as his superior, and the words are spoken to remove Cain's envy.

7. If thou doest well, &c.] A verse well known for its difficulties. The rendering in the marg. “shall it not be lifted up?” should be followed. Literally the first clause runs thus: “Is there not, if thou doest well, to lift up?” The infinitive “to lift up” must be taken as an infinitival substantive = “a lifting up,” with reference, in all probability, to the previous phrase, “the falling” of Cain’s countenance. The meaning then is, “If thou doest well, and makest thy offering with a pure and right motive, thy face, instead of falling, shall be lifted up in happiness.” This, on the whole, seems better than the alternative rendering “is there not forgiveness?” The word “to lift up” admits of the meaning “to forgive,” but is hardly likely to be used in this sense without an object, and before any mention of sin has been made. sin coucheth] The meaning is, “and, if thou doest not well and cherishest evil in thy heart, then, remember, sin, like a savage wild beast, is lying in ambush ready to spring out upon you.” “Sin” is here mentioned for the first time. Ḥ ?attβ’th has a varied significance, and might here mean either “guilt,” or “punishment,” or “the active principle of sin.” And in view of the personification in the next clause, this last meaning is here to be preferred. The Hebrew text of Gen 4:7 is probably corrupt. The LXX took the first clause to refer to a ritual inaccuracy in sacrifice, and mistranslated the words “sin coucheth,” failing to perceive the metaphor: οὐκ, ἐὰνὀρθῶςπροσενέγκῃς, ὀρθῶςδὲμὴδιέλῃς, ἥμαρτες; ἡσύχασον. “If thou madest thine offering rightly, but didst not rightly divide it, didst thou not sin? hold thy peace.” In other words: “you broke the ritual rules of offering; you have no right to complain.” The Latin reads: Nonne, si bene egeris, recipies? sin autem male, statim in foribus peccatum aderit; sed sub te erit appetitus ejus, et tu dominaberis illius. shall be his desire, &c.] Better, as marg., “is its desire, but thou shouldest rule over it.” Evil, like a savage animal, is ravening for thee; but thou hast strength, if thou hast the will, to overcome it. The alternative rendering of the text, “his desire … over him,” introduces the idea of one brother’s authority over the other, which seems foreign to the context. The metaphor of sin as a wild beast ready at any moment to spring upon, and get the mastery of, the man who will not make the effort to do what he knows to be right, embodies deep spiritual truth. The evil passions, always ready to take advantage of the will that refuses to hear the voice of the better self, have often in literature been likened to a wild beast, cf.

7. Shalt thou not be accepted — Rather, is there not an uplifting, that is, of the countenance. The downcast, sullen look is not a mark of him that doeth well.