Genesis 4:9

9 Then Yahweh said to Cain, "Where [is] Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

Genesis 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 4:9

And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother?
&c.] Perhaps this was said to him the next time he came to offer, he not being with him: this question is put, not as being ignorant where he was, but in order to bring Cain to a conviction and confession of his sin, to touch his conscience with it, and fill it with remorse for it; and, for the aggravation of it, observes the relation of Abel to him, his brother: and he said, I know not;
which was a downright lie; for he must know where he had left him or laid him: this shows him to be under the influence of Satan, who was a liar, and the father of lies, as well as a murderer from the beginning; and that he was so blinded by him, as to forget whom he was speaking to; that he was the omniscient God, and knew the wickedness he had done, and the falsehood he now delivered, and was capable of confronting him with both, and of inflicting just punishment on him. [Am] I my brother's keeper?
which was very saucily and impudently spoken: it is not only put by way of interrogation, but of admiration, as Jarchi observes, as wondering at it, that God should put such a question to him, since he knew he had not the charge of his brother, and his brother was at age to take care of himself; and if not, it rather belonged to God and his providence to take care of him, and not to him: so hardened was he in his iniquity, he had stretched out his hand against his brother, and now he stretched it out against God, and ran upon him, even on the thick bosses of his buckler.

Genesis 4:9 In-Context

7 If you do well {will I not accept you}? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. And its desire [is] for you, but you must rule over it."

8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, ["Let us go out into the field."] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

9 Then Yahweh said to Cain, "Where [is] Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

10 And he said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.

11 So now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "And"