World English Bible · Before the nations
Genesis 4
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The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to , and said, "I have gotten a man with help." Again she gave birth, to brother . was a keeper of sheep, but was a tiller of the ground. As time passed, brought an to from the fruit of the ground. also brought some of of his flock and of its fat. respected and his , but he didn't respect and his . was very angry, and the expression on fell. said to , "Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your fallen? If you do well, won't it be lifted up? If you don't do well, crouches at the door. Its is for you, but you are to it." said to , his brother, "Let's go into the field." While they were in the field, rose up against , his brother, and killed him. said to , "Where is , your brother?" He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's cries to me from the ground. Now you are because of the ground, which has opened its to receive your brother's from your hand. From now on, when you till the ground, it won't yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth." said to , "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your , and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me." said to him, "Therefore whoever slays , will be taken on him sevenfold." appointed a sign for , so that anyone finding him would not strike him. left , and lived in the land of Nod, east of . knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to . He built a city, and named the city after the name of his son, . was born to . became of . became of . became of . took two wives: the name of the first one was , and the name of the second one was . gave birth to , who was of those who in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was , who was of all who handle the harp and pipe. also gave birth to , the forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron. sister was . said to his wives, " and , . You wives of , listen to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. If will be seven times, truly seventy-seven times." knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him , saying, "for has given me another child instead of , for killed him." A son was also born to , and he named him . At that time men began to call on name.
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The world at this moment · Before the nations, 2600 BC to 2100 BC ›
The opening chapters, from creation to Babel, told on a scale that covers the whole earth before the story narrows to one family.
- The neighbours' own stories
- Mesopotamia told its own versions of these events. Atrahasis and the eleventh tablet of Gilgamesh tell of a flood, a survivor, an ark, and birds sent out to find land. Enuma Elish tells of a world made from a defeated sea. The resemblances are close enough that scholars have argued about them for a century and a half, and the differences are where the argument gets interesting: Genesis has no quarrel among gods, no accidental humanity, and a flood sent for moral reasons rather than because people were noisy.
- Babel and the ziggurat
- A tower with its top in the heavens, built of brick and bitumen on a plain in Shinar, describes a Mesopotamian ziggurat exactly. Dozens were built, the best known at Ur and Babylon, of mud brick because southern Mesopotamia has no stone. The detail about brick instead of stone is the kind of thing someone writes who has actually seen one.
- The wider world
- If these chapters are placed anywhere in ordinary chronology, the surrounding centuries are the age of the Egyptian pyramids, the Sumerian city-states, the Indus Valley cities, and the first phase of Stonehenge. Writing was a few centuries old and existed in two places on earth.
All of Genesis