Genesis 4

1 Adam and Eve slept together, like a man does with his wife, and then Eve had a baby boy and gave him the name Cain. Eve said, “God has helped me have this baby boy.”

2 After that they had another son, and she gave him the name Abel. Abel grew up, and he looked after sheep all the time. Cain grew up, he became a gardener. He grew plants to eat.

3 One day Cain brought some food from his garden to give to God.

4 And Abel brought his present to God too, but Abel brought the best sheep from his mob of sheep. And God was happy with Abel, and with his present.

5 But God was not happy with Cain, and he was not happy with Cain’s present. Then Cain got very angry. His face changed and he looked very sad.

6 God said, “Cain. Why are you looking angry and sad?

7 If you do the right thing, I will be happy with you. But, if you don’t do the right thing, you have to be careful. You’ve got to tell yourself not to do those bad things you want to do. If you keep doing wrong things your life will be full of trouble.”

8 After that Cain went to his brother, Abel, and said, “Let’s go for a walk.” So Cain and Abel went out bush together. While they were there, Cain got up and hit his brother, and murdered him.

9 Later, God said to Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?” Cain said, “I don’t know where my brother is. I can’t look after him all the time. That’s not my job.”

10 God said to Cain, “What did you do? You know you did a really bad thing. I can see your brother’s blood on the ground. It’s like his blood is calling out to me. It is telling me you murdered him.

11 From now on, I’m going to curse you. You murdered your brother and his blood is on the ground. So I will make the ground bad for you.

12 If you try to grow plants in the ground nothing will grow for you. You will go away from me. And you will walk around in lots of places, but you will have no home.”

13 Cain said to God, “God, you are too hard on me.

14 You will not let me work my land now, and I have to go away from you. I have to walk around everywhere. I can’t sit down anywhere. Anybody might murder me now.”

15 God said, “Cain, that will not happen. If somebody does murder you, then I will punish them 7 times more than I punished you.” So God put a mark on Cain’s head so everybody will know that they can’t murder him.

16 After this, Cain walked away from God and went to live in a place called Nod. That country was on the east side of the garden called Eden.

17 Cain slept with his wife, like married people do together, and then she had a baby boy. They called their son Enoch. Cain built a town and he also called it Enoch, after his son.

18 Enoch grew up and he had a son, called Irad. Irad grew up and he had a son, called Mehuajel. Mehujael grew up, and he had a son, called Methushael. Methushael grew up and had a son, called Lamech.

19 Lamech grew up and married 2 women. One wife’s name was Adah. The name of the other wife was Zillah.

20 Lamech’s wife Adah had a baby boy, called Jabal. Jabal grew up and he was the first person to go around with mobs of cattle, just living in a tent, not a house.

21 Adah had another son, a brother for Jabal. His name was Jubal. Jubal grew up and was the first person to play musical instruments. He played a harp and a flute.

22 Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, she had a son called Tubal-Cain. Tubal-Cain grew up and made tools from iron and from a brown metal called bronze. Zillah also had a daughter, called Naamah.

23 One day Lamech said to his 2 wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me properly. My wives, listen to me now. A young man hit me and hurt me, so I murdered him.

24 God said that if anyone murdered Cain he will punish that man 7 times more than he punished Cain. I reckon I’m more important than Cain. So if a man kills me for murdering that young man, I reckon God will punish him 77 times more than he punished Cain.”

25 Adam and Eve slept together again, like a man does with his wife, and they had another son, and they gave him the name Seth. Eve said, “God has given me another son to take the place of Abel, the one that Cain murdered.”

26 Seth grew up and had a son called Enosh. People started to pray to God at that time.