John Calvin Commentary Genesis 4:11

"And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother`s blood from thy hand;" — Genesis 4:11 (ASV)

And now art thou cursed from the earth. Cain, having been convicted of the crime, judgment is now pronounced against him. First, God makes the earth the agent of His vengeance, as having been polluted by the impious and horrible parricide. It is as if He had said, ‘You just now denied to Me the murder which you have committed, but the senseless earth itself will demand your punishment.’ He does this, however, to aggravate the enormity of the crime, as if a kind of contagion flowed from it even to the earth, for which the execution of punishment was required.

The idea of some, that cruelty is here ascribed to the earth, as if God compared it to a wild beast that had drunk Abel’s blood, is far from the true meaning. Rather, in my judgment, clemency is imputed to it by personification; because, in abhorrence of the pollution, it had opened its mouth to cover the blood shed by a brother’s hand.

Most detestable is the cruelty of this man, who does not shrink from pouring out his neighbor’s blood, for which the bosom of the earth becomes the receptacle. Yet we must not suppose any miracle here, as if the blood had been absorbed by an unusual opening of the earth; rather, the speech is figurative, signifying that there was more humanity in the earth than in man himself.

Moreover, those who think that, because Cain is now cursed in stronger words than Adam had previously been, God had dealt more gently with the first man, intending to spare the human race, have some basis for their opinion. Adam heard the words, Cursed is the ground for thy sake: but now the shaft of divine vengeance vibrates against, and transfixes the person of Cain.

The opinion of others, that temporal punishment is intended because it is said, Thou art cursed from the earth, rather than from heaven, lest the posterity of Cain, being cut off from the hope of salvation, should rush more boldly into their own damnation, seems to me not sufficiently confirmed.

I rather interpret the passage thus: Judgment was committed to the earth so that Cain might understand that his judge did not need to be summoned from a distance; that there was no need for an angel to descend from heaven, since the earth voluntarily offered itself as the avenger.