Genesis 4:3–15

³So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD, ⁴while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.

And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.

⁶“Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you,^b but you must master it.”

⁸Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.”^c And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰“What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. ¹¹Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹²When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment^d is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵“Not so!”^e replied the LORD. “If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold.” And the LORD placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.