4:9 - Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
[ T - OL ]
As with all earlier questions, Yahweh asked not because He did not already know the answer. He was opening a door of redemption. Cain's response to this demonstration of grace was as cold-hearted as the murder he had just committed, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" While his parents prevaricated when first confronted by Yahweh after their rebellion, here Cain told an outright lie and without hesitation. His own question would have been answered with an equally forthright affirmative if it had been a genuine question. The verb (which for effect, all English translations render into the noun "keeper") is the same word used of his father when he was taken into the garden to "take care" of it. As the elder of the brothers it was his responsibility to watch over his brother. But Cain was not here clarifying a matter of his education. He was slamming the door Yahweh had opened for him. In His face. It is the first shocking demonstration of unrepentant impertinence.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016