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 Yahweh said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain will receive sevenfold vengeance. And Yahweh put a mark on Cain, lest anyone chancing upon him should kill him.
"Therefore," here, follows the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Septuagint, Peshitta, Symmachus, Theodotion, and Vulgate all read "Not so", reading lo ken instead of the MT's laken.
What is sevenfold vengeance? What is seven times worse than a murder? Two interpretations, at least, are possible: that "sevenfold" simply refers to "completeness" or "fullness" in some metaphorical way, or that it really does refer to the killing of multiple people. If it does refer to multiple people, we find ourselves once again up against the issue of the the global population at this point in time.
The nature of the mark continues to be a puzzle. There is no consensus as to what the mark is, and in fact there may be consensus that the mark is unknowable: "Most scholars would say that we just do not, and cannot, know precisely what the text envisages" (Moberly, 2007).
R. W. L. Moberly, in the Harvard Theological Review, suggests an ingenious interpretation. I do not know to what extent it has caught on among scholars, but whether you accept it or not, his article provides a fascinating window into the various issues at play in dealing with Cain, the Kenites, and similar biblical figures and groups.
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