John Calvin Commentary Genesis 4:6

"And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?" — Genesis 4:6 (ASV)

And the Lord said unto Cain. God now proceeds against Cain himself and cites him to His tribunal, so that the wretched man might understand that his rage can profit him nothing. He wishes honor to be given to him for his sacrifices; but because he does not obtain it, he is furiously angry.

Meanwhile, he does not consider that through his own fault he had failed to gain his wish; for if he had but been conscious of his inward evil, he would have ceased to expostulate with God and to rage against his guiltless brother. Moses does not state in what manner God spoke.

Whether a vision was presented to him, or he heard an oracle from heaven, or was admonished by secret inspiration, he certainly felt himself bound by a divine judgment. To apply this to the person of Adam, as being the prophet and interpreter of God in censuring his son, is constrained and even frigid.

I understand what good men, not less pious than learned, propose when they sport with such fancies. Their intention is to honor the external ministry of the word and to cut off the occasion for Satan to insinuate his illusions under the guise of revelation. Truly I confess, nothing is more useful than that pious minds should be kept under the order of preaching and in obedience to Scripture, so that they may not seek the mind of God in erratic speculations.

But we may observe that the word of God was delivered from the beginning by oracles, so that afterwards, when administered by the hands of men, it might receive greater reverence. I also acknowledge that the office of teaching was enjoined upon Adam, and I do not doubt that he diligently admonished his children. Yet those who think that God only spoke through his ministers excessively restrict the words of Moses. Let us rather conclude that, before the heavenly teaching was committed to public records, God often made known His will by extraordinary methods, and that this was the foundation which supported reverence for the word, while the doctrine delivered through the hands of men was like the edifice itself.

Certainly, even if I were silent, everyone would acknowledge how greatly such a view as the one to which we refer diminishes the force of the divine reprimand. Therefore, just as the voice of God had previously sounded so clearly in Adam’s ears that he certainly perceived God speaking, so it is also now directed to Cain.