And the LORD said unto Cain,
Where is Abel
your brother?
And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
All Commentaries on Genesis 4:9 Go To Genesis 4
Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
But Cain was filled with wrath instead of compunction. To him who knows all, who asked him about his brother in order to win him back, Cain retorted angrily and said, “I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?” … What then would you say, Cain? Should Justice take vengeance for the blood that cried out to it? Or not? Did it not delay so that you might repent? Did Justice not distance itself from its own knowledge and ask you as if it did not know, so that you might confess? What it said to you did not please you, so you came to that sin to which it had warned you beforehand not to come. Commentary on Genesis;.
