Genesis 4:11 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; Now art thou cursed from the earth. Here a curse is added to the general one denounced on the ground for Adam's sin. The meaning of the words, according to our version, which is supported by Baumgarten, Knobel, etc., is; that the soil which Cain had cultivated, having drunk innocent blood, would, as it were, in indignation and horror at the awful crime of fratricide, withhold its productive powers; and though he should prosecute his agricultural works with accustomed assiduity, all his labour, industry, and art would now be fruitless; the seasons would be unpropitious, the ground yield little or no return, like the land of Canaan, which spewed out its inhabitants on account of their abominable vices (Leviticus 18:28). The phrase, "which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood," and the first clause of the next verse, seem to favour this interpretation. Or, the words may be rendered, as they are by Rosenmuller, Tuch, Gerlach, Delitzsch, 'cursed art thou from the land,'-your old haunts will no longer be safe for you: you must become an unhappy exile, and seek an asylum in some distant part of the world. The concluding clause of Genesis 4:12 apparently supports this latter view.