This verse is a lament or complaint. Cain directs his complaint against God, a complaint about the punishment imposed on him, and against his potential enemy. Translators should try to use whatever features their own language has to bring a complaining or whining tone into their rendering of Cain’s words. Behold is the same term as used in 3.22, but in this context it is one of the features that mark the words that follow as a lament. One recent translation has focused on this feature and used an equivalent local expression “You look!” to make Cain’s words easy for all readers to recognize as a complaint.
Thou hast driven me this day …: driven translates a verb meaning “to send away, banish, expel” and is the same verb used in 3.24, “drove out.” This day refers to the time when Cain is lamenting; that is, “today.” Good News Translation “you are driving me…” makes the action present time, and so “today” can be omitted. Away from the ground refers back to the words of the curse in verse 11, “cursed from the ground.” See verse 11 for comments. In translation this expression should point clearly to the land that is worked to produce food. In English “off the land” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible) expresses this well. We may also say, for example, “away from the fields [or, gardens] where we grow food” or “away from being a farmer.”
And from thy face I shall be hidden: face [of God] is an idiomatic expression meaning “from God’s presence” or “from the place where God is.” Some scholars have argued that Cain refers here to the home of the Kenite tribe, and that the ground refers to the land of Canaan. However, this view presupposes that the narrative is set in Canaan when the people of Israel are settled there. This is very unlikely.
Some interpreters understand that face [of God] in from thy face I shall be hidden refers to God’s anger; but in the context of a lament, it is more likely that Cain is complaining that he will be cut off from God’s blessing and kindness, or that he is being banished from God’s protecting presence, and so exposed to death by revenge. Good News Translation has “away from your presence.” Bible en français courant says “I shall have to hide myself far from you,” which is a good translation model.
A fugitive and a wanderer on the earth are the same words as in verse 12. Whoever finds me does not suggest that people will be actively pursuing or looking for Cain, but rather that people will happen to meet him wherever he is wandering. The New English Bible rendering “Anyone who meets me” gives the sense. Good News Translation has “anyone who finds me” here, but “anyone who met him” where the same verb is used in verse 15. This has also been translated “if someone sees me…” in the sense of the person recognizing Cain as a fugitive from justice. In one other translation Cain’s emotion and the tone of lament are brought out at this point by saying “I am afraid, lest anyone who meets me….”
Slay me translates the same verb used in Gen 4.8. The narrator is not concerned that, according to the information so far in his story, there is no one else around who could murder Cain.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .