Genesis 4:10 - Exposition

Satisfied that the guilty fratricide is resolved to make no acknowledgment of his deed, the omniscient Judge proceeds to charge him with his sin. And he — i.e. Jehovah— said, What hast thou done? Thus intimating his perfect cognizance of the fact which his prisoner was attempting to deny. What a revelation it must have been to the inwardly trembling culprit of the impossibility of eluding the besetting God! ( Psalms 139:5 ). The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me . A common Scriptural expression concerning murder and other crimes ( Genesis 18:20 , Genesis 18:21 ; Genesis 19:13 ; Exodus 3:9 ; Hebrews 12:24 ; James 5:4 ). The blood crying is a symbol of the soul crying for its right to live (Lange). In this instance the cry was a demand for the punishment of the murderer; and that cry has reverberated through all lands and down through all ages, proclaiming vengeance against the shedder of innocent blood (cf. Genesis 9:5 ). "Hence the prayer that the earth may net drink in the blood shed upon it, in order that it may not thereby become invisible and inaudible" (Knobel). Cf. Job 16:18 ; Isaiah 26:21 ; Ezekiel 24:7 ; also Eschylus, 'Chaephorae,' 310, 398 (quoted by T . Lewis in Lange). From the ground . Into which it had disappeared, but not, as the murderer hoped, to become for. gotten.