4:10 12 - 10The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. 11Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."
[ T - OL ]
Even the least competent of exegetes can tell that Yahweh was not asking a question here. The brutal insolence He had just witnessed from Cain was a outrage (something that the NIV & NRS capture with the additional "Listen!"). Already we see how the darkness of sin is deepening its erosion into the human heart; while Adam could hear the sound of God walking in the garden and he hid, Cain could not hear (or would not) the scream of his brother's blood crying out for justice. NIV's addition of the verb, 'listen,' is entirely justified; Yahweh had to call Cain's attention to it.
As the rest of the OT will make clear again and again, Yahweh' anger is never a hysterical explosion of frayed emotions but is always a measured decision. Once Yahweh had cursed the ground (ha'adamah). Now, Cain becomes the subject of a curse min-ha'adamah "from the ground." Just as a blessing "endues with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity," (cf., Gen 1:22) so to be cursed is to be denied all these — so, now "when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you." What else being "cursed from the ground" may mean is not clear (NIV's "driven from the ground" adds no fresh insights). Finally, Cain is banished to a life of alienation as a fugitive and wanderer.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016