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(BA) Genesis 4:7
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2 August 2022 Navigate 'up to the Genesis index: index-genesis.

KJV: 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.

The Hebrew text is extremely difficult in this verse, and to the best of my knowledge there is no general agreement on what it all means. For an introduction to some of the difficulties involved, see G. R. Castellino's article in Vetus Testamentum.

Among other issues, the part translated "shalt thou not be accepted" is very difficult to understand. The term translated as "sin" could also be translated as "sin-offering". And the the part about desire repeats wording from God's curse of Eve in chapter 3, but in such a different context that it is hard to know exactly what is meant. The word translated as "desire" is also disputed.

Sources
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