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
