And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
And in process of time - literally, at the end of days. The original words are sometimes used in a vague, indefinite sense, to denote a considerable lapse of time (as 1 Kings 17:7, where they are rendered, "after a while"); in other passages they are used to express a determinate period (2 Samuel 14:26; 2 Chronicles 21:19; Daniel 12:13). There is nothing, however, in the context to show whether that period was a week or a year, an ordinary sabbath, or a sacred anniversary. The probability is, that it was an extraordinary occasion of this kind, a stated periodical season, when the sons of Adam, now advanced in life, and at the head of families of their own, appeared as the representatives and priests of their respective families, as was the practice in patriarchal times (cf. Genesis 8:20; Genesis 12:7-8; Genesis 13:18; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 33:20; Genesis 35:6-7) to present their oblations at the appointed place of worship. The very circumstance of their repairing to that primitive sanctuary together, and for the express purpose of worship, creates an impression that the time was divinely appointed-a sacred season, well-known and recognized by both; otherwise it is difficult to account for a man of such dispositions and principles as Cain choosing to unite with the godly Abel in a simultaneous act of worship. It has been thought not improbable, that a revelation had been early made to Eve similar to what was afterward made to Rebecca (Genesis 25:23) in favour of her younger son, which had roused the jealousy of the older; and therefore, had there not been a special day set apart for worship, we should rather have expected Cain to avoid the time which Abel chose, from dislike and envy of him. It is, however, plainly implied that there was a certain known time at which both were called to worship God together. The clause literally rendered would stand thus: 'And it was at the end of days' (i:e., either on the Sabbath or some sacred anniversary).
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground - the produce of the fields he cultivated, consisting probably of vegetables, grain, and fruit from trees. It is not said to have been the first fruits, but only "the fruit of the ground."
An offering, х minchaah (H4503)] - a gift or present offered in social life to a superior, in token of respect or acknowledgment; but when used in Scripture as a sacrificial term, it signifies an offering of grain or bread. According to the description given of it as a stated vegetable offering of the Mosaic ritual, it was composed of grain or flour, with oil and incense. But the name, in its primary and widest use, may be considered as including fruits and grain, in a crude as well as a prepared state (Exodus 29:38-41; Leviticus 2:1-3; Leviticus 2:12; Numbers 5:15). In these passages the minchaah is defined a meat or bread offering, and it always signifies an unbloody oblation, in contradistinction to the bloody or animal sacrifices. 'The sense of the word,' as Kennicott remarks, 'is, by the passages referred to, absolutely determined, at least, in the five Books of Moses; because the inspired author, wherever he mentions the word minchaah, as a sacrificial term, certainly uses it in the same sense; especially when he appears so minutely to have fixed its meaning. And, therefore, since the Book of Genesis was undoubtedly written by Moses in the wilderness, after the delivery of the law and the appointment of the sacred rites belonging to the Mosaic dispensation, the word minchaah, when used sacrificially, must be supposed to carry the same idea in Genesis which had been settled upon it by God Himself, before Genesis was composed.'