And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
My punishment is greater than I can bear. The original words have been variously interpreted. х `ªwon (H5771) signifies, primarily, iniquity, sin; and naasaa' (H5375), when applied to God, to take away, when to man, to bear guilt; and hence, the margin of our Bibles following the Septuagint, and the greater number of versions, has 'Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven.'] The magnitude and atrocity of the crime appeared to extinguish in Cain's mind all hope of forgiveness; and therefore, like Judas, he abandoned himself to wild, reckless despair. Others, taking the sentence interrogatively, render it, 'Is my iniquity too great for expiation?' can the penalty not be inflicted in some other form-a compensation accepted by fine? or, if it must be by my personal suffering, can it not be a defined and limited one? But although 'sin' or 'iniquity' is the primary meaning of the Hebrew term, it denotes also the punishment of sin; and the context seems rather to point to the secondary meaning; because Cain was overwhelmed with a sense, not of the greatness of his guilt, but of the severity of the sentence. His exclamation, "My punishment is greater than I can bear," was prompted by a weight of unendurable misery. He had spurned all offers of grace; there was no sign of penitence, no cry for pardon: but he was fully alive to the terrible sentence which had been pronounced upon him, and he dwelt exclusively upon it, specifying four particulars in which its tremendous character appeared.