And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Ver. 10. What hast thou done?] Here God appeals to the murderer's conscience, which is instead of a thousand witnesses. As oft as we feel the secret smitings of our own hearts for sin, think we hear him that is greater than our hearts, saying to us as here, What havae you done? And that there is no good to be done by denying or dawbing, for he knows all things, 1Jn 3:20 and requires that we should see our sins to confession, or we shall see them to our confusion.
The voice of thy brother's blood.] The blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops, and every drop a voice to cry for vengeance. "Give them blood to drink, for they are worthy." Rev 16:6 Charles IX. of France, author of that bloody massacre of Paris, died of exceeding bleeding. Richard III. of this kingdom, and Queen Mary, had the shortest reigns of any since the Conquest; according to that, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," Psa 55:23 anno 1586. a Walsh, Bishop of Ossery, in Ireland, a man of honest life, with his two servants, were stabbed to death by one Dulland, an Irish old soldier, while he gravely admonished him of his foul adulteries; and the wicked murderer escaped away, who had now committed forty-five murders with his own hand. At length, revenge pursuing him, he was by another bloody fellow, Donald Spaniah, shortly after slain himself, and his head presented to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. b
a Mr Camden's Elisab ., p. 165.
b Mr Camden's Elisab., p. 241.