---
title: "Genesis 4 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/genesis/4/
description: "The history of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Genesis 4

Genesis 4 is chapter 4 of 50 in the Book of Genesis. Here are all 26 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The history of Cain and Abel.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Genesis 4 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Truly, Adam knew his wife Eve, who conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying, “I have obtained a man through God.”
2. And again she gave birth to his brother Abel. But Abel was a pastor of sheep, and Cain was a farmer.
3. Then it happened, after many days, that Cain offered gifts to the Lord, from the fruits of the earth.
4. Abel likewise offered from the firstborn of his flock, and from their fat. And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his gifts.
5. Yet in truth, he did not look with favor on Cain and his gifts. And Cain was vehemently angry, and his countenance fell.
6. And the Lord said to him: “Why are you angry? And why is your face fallen?
7. If you behave well, will you not receive? But if you behave badly, will not sin at once be present at the door? And so its desire will be within you, and you will be dominated by it.”
8. And Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go outside.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and he put him to death.
9. And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he responded: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10. And he said to him: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the land.
11. Now, therefore, you will be cursed upon the land, which opened its mouth and received the blood of your brother at your hand.
12. When you work it, it will not give you its fruit; a vagrant and a fugitive shall you be upon the land.”
13. And Cain said to the Lord: “My iniquity is too great to deserve kindness.
14. Behold, you have cast me out this day before the face of the earth, and from your face I will be hidden; and I will be a vagrant and a fugitive on the earth. Therefore, anyone who finds me will kill me.”
15. And the Lord said to him: “By no means will it be so; rather, whoever would kill Cain, will be punished sevenfold.” And the Lord placed a seal upon Cain, so that anyone who found him would not put him to death.
16. And so Cain, departing from the face of the Lord, lived as a fugitive on the earth, toward the eastern region of Eden.
17. Then Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city, and he called its name by the name of his son, Enoch.
18. Thereafter, Enoch conceived Irad, and Irad conceived Mahujael, and Mahujael conceived Mathusael, and Mathusael conceived Lamech.
19. Lamech took two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah.
20. And Adah conceived Jabel, who was the father of those who live in tents and are shepherds.
21. And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the father of those who sing to the harp and the organ.
22. Zillah also conceived Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and artisan in every work of brass and iron. In fact, the sister of Tubalcain was Noema.
23. And Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah: “Listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, pay attention to my speech. For I have killed a man to my own harm, and an adolescent to my own bruising.
24. Sevenfold vengeance will be given for Cain, but for Lamech, seventy-seven times.”
25. Adam also knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and she called his name Seth, saying, “God has given me another offspring, in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
26. But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enos. This one began to invoke the name of the Lord.

## Genesis 4 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Adam vero cognovit uxorem suam Hevam, quæ concepit et peperit Cain, dicens: Possedi hominem per Deum.
2. Rursumque peperit fratrem ejus Abel. Fuit autem Abel pastor ovium, et Cain agricola.
3. Factum est autem post multos dies ut offerret Cain de fructibus terræ munera Domino.
4. Abel quoque obtulit de primogenitis gregis sui, et de adipibus eorum: et respexit Dominus ad Abel, et ad munera ejus.
5. Ad Cain vero, et ad munera illius non respexit: iratusque est Cain vehementer, et concidit vultus ejus.
6. Dixitque Dominus ad eum: Quare iratus es? et cur concidit facies tua?
7. nonne si bene egeris, recipies: sin autem male, statim in foribus peccatum aderit? sed sub te erit appetitus ejus, et tu dominaberis illius.
8. Dixitque Cain ad Abel fratrem suum: Egrediamur foras. Cumque essent in agro, consurrexit Cain adversus fratrem suum Abel, et interfecit eum.
9. Et ait Dominus ad Cain: Ubi est Abel frater tuus? Qui respondit: Nescio: num custos fratris mei sum ego?
10. Dixitque ad eum: Quid fecisti? vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra.
11. Nunc igitur maledictus eris super terram, quæ aperuit os suum, et suscepit sanguinem fratris tui de manu tua.
12. Cum operatus fueris eam, non dabit tibi fructus suos: vagus et profugus eris super terram.
13. Dixitque Cain ad Dominum: Major est iniquitas mea, quam ut veniam merear.
14. Ecce ejicis me hodie a facie terræ, et a facie tua abscondar, et ero vagus et profugus in terra: omnis igitur qui invenerit me, occidet me.
15. Dixitque ei Dominus: Nequaquam ita fiet: sed omnis qui occiderit Cain, septuplum punietur. Posuitque Dominus Cain signum, ut non interficeret eum omnis qui invenisset eum.
16. Egressusque Cain a facie Domini, habitavit profugus in terra ad orientalem plagam Eden.
17. Cognovit autem Cain uxorem suam, quæ concepit, et peperit Henoch: et ædificavit civitatem, vocavitque nomen ejus ex nomine filii sui, Henoch.
18. Porro Henoch genuit Irad, et Irad genuit Maviaël, et Maviaël genuit Mathusaël, et Mathusaël genuit Lamech.
19. Qui accepit duas uxores, nomen uni Ada, et nomen alteri Sella.
20. Genuitque Ada Jabel, qui fuit pater habitantium in tentoriis, atque pastorum.
21. Et nomen fratris ejus Jubal: ipse fuit pater canentium cithara et organo.
22. Sella quoque genuit Tubalcain, qui fuit malleator et faber in cuncta opera æris et ferri. Soror vero Tubalcain, Noëma.
23. Dixitque Lamech uxoribus suis Adæ et Sellæ: Audite vocem meam, uxores Lamech; auscultate sermonem meum: quoniam occidi virum in vulnus meum, et adolescentulum in livorem meum.
24. Septuplum ultio dabitur de Cain: de Lamech vero septuagies septies.
25. Cognovit quoque adhuc Adam uxorem suam: et peperit filium, vocavitque nomen ejus Seth, dicens: Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud pro Abel, quem occidit Cain.
26. Sed et Seth natus est filius, quem vocavit Enos: iste cœpit invocare nomen Domini.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 2335: "Male and Female He Created Them . . ." ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 401: The Fall ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2538: The Disorder of Covetous Desires ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2569: In the Old Testament ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2259: Respect for Human Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2259: Respect for Human Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1736: Freedom and Responsibility ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1867: The Proliferation of Sin ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2268: Respect for Human Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: That is, shewed his acceptance of his sacrifice (as coming from a heart full of devotion): and that, as we may suppose, by some visible token, such as sending fire from heaven upon his offerings.
- Verse 14: His guilty conscience made him fear his own brothers and nephews; of whom, by this time, there might be a good number upon the earth; which had now endured near 130 years; as may be gathered from Gen. 5. 3, compared with chap. 4. 25, though in the compendious account given in the scriptures, only Cain and Abel are mentioned.
- Verse 15: The more common opinion of the interpreters of holy writ supposes this mark to have been a trembling of the body; or a horror and consternation in his countenance.
- Verse 17: “His wife” … She was a daughter of Adam, and Cain's own sister; God dispensing with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind could not otherwise be propagated. He built a city, viz. In process of time, when his race was multiplied, so as to be numerous enough to people it. For in the many hundred years he lived, his race might be multiplied even to millions.
- Verse 23: It is the tradition of the Hebrews, that Lamech in hunting slew Cain, mistaking him for a wild beast; and that having discovered what he had done, he beat so unmercifully the youth, by whom he was led into that mistake, that he died of the blows.
- Verse 26: Not that Adam and Seth had not called upon God, before the birth of Enos; but that Enos used more solemnity in the worship and invocation of God.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).