Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 4:7

"If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it." — Genesis 4:7 (ASV)

If you do well. —This most difficult verse is capable of a satisfactory interpretation, provided that we refuse to admit into this ancient narrative the ideas of a subsequent age. Literally, the words mean, If you do well, is there not lifting up? It had just been said that his countenance fell; and this lifting up is often elsewhere applied to the countenance. (Job 11:15.) “Instead, then, of your present gloomy, despondent mood, in which you go about with a downcast look, you will lift up your head and have peace and good temper beaming in your eyes as the result of a quiet conscience.” The second half of the verse is capable of two meanings.

First: “If you do not well, sin lies (crouches as a beast of prey) at the door, and its desire is toward you, to make you its victim; but you shall rule over it and overcome the temptation.” The objection to this is that while sin is feminine, the verb and pronouns are masculine.

There are, indeed, numerous instances of a verb masculine with a noun feminine, but the pronouns are fatal, though most Jewish interpreters adopt this feeble explanation. The other interpretation is: “If you do not well, sin crouches at the door, that is, lies dangerously near you, and puts you in peril. Beware, therefore, and stand on your guard; and then his desire shall be toward you, and you shall rule over him. At present you are vexed and envious because your younger brother is rich and prosperous, while your tillage yields you but scanty returns. Do well, and the Divine blessing will rest on you, and you will recover your rights of primogeniture, and your brother will look up to you in loving obedience.” (Compare to the loving subjection of the wife in Genesis 3:16.)

We have in this verse proof of a struggle in Cain’s conscience. Abel was evidently outstripping him in wealth; his flocks were multiplying, and possibly his younger brothers were attaching themselves to him in greater numbers than to Cain. Moreover, there was a more marked moral growth in him, and his virtue and piety were more attractive than Cain’s harsher disposition. This had led to envy and malice on the part of Cain, increased, doubtless, by the favor of God shown to Abel’s sacrifice; but he seems to have resisted these evil feelings.

Jehovah would not have remonstrated thus kindly with him had he been altogether reprobate. Possibly, too, for a time he prevailed over his evil tempers. It is a gratuitous assumption that the murder followed immediately upon the sacrifice. The words of the Almighty rather show that repentance was still possible, and that Cain might still recover the Divine favor, and thereby regain that pre-eminence which was his by right of primogeniture, but which he felt that he was rapidly losing by Abel’s prosperity and more loving ways.