This page was migrated in August 2022 from my older website, biblicalambiguities.net.
2 August 2022 Navigate 'up to the Genesis index: index-genesis.
And after some time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground as an offering to Yahweh.
The fruit of the ground is an idiom for produce of the ground, that is, what Cain produced as a farmer. And the most reasonable supposition would be that this refers to grain, both because that was the bulk of farming in the ancient near east, and because of the presence of the word minhah, here translated as offering. This word could refer to an offering or present in general, but also to a specific sort of grain-offering, as in Leviticus 2:1. On the other hand, Abel's minhah is of sheep, so I may be barking up the wrong tree with this argument.
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