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Hilary, Bishop of Pointiers, explaining Psalm 118, maintained that the receiving of tithes
was a natural commandment from the beginning. So, again, in the twelfth century did
Hugo, Abbot of St. Victors, and Peter Comestor; while five centuries later, Grotius wrote
regarding this text that the sense, according to the Septuagint, was that Cain either did not
offer the best, or else that he gave a less proportion than the tenth, "which," he continues,
"from the most ancient ages was the proportion due to God." Some perhaps would call
this reading a meaning into the text, rather than drawing one out of it: but before we make
this judgment let us see what can be said in its favour.

Concerning Cain and Abel, our present Hebrew text (Genesis 4:3-7) reads (as
literally as I can translate it) thus:

"And it came to pass at the end of days Cain brought of the fruit of the ground a
present to Jehovah. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his sheep and of
their fat. And Jehovah looked favorably upon Abel and upon his present; but upon
Cain and upon his present He did not look favorably. And it vexed Cain
exceedingly, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said to Cain, Wherefore did it
vex thee, and wherefore did thy countenance fall? If thou will do well, shall not
thy face be lifted up? but if thou will not do well, sin is couching at the door."

Professor Cheyne (Encyclopaedia Biblica, I 620, Article, "Cain") translates the
sixth verse thus: "Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? Surely, if
thou doest well, thou canst lift up thy head, and if thou doest not well, thy sin must cause
it to fail; from irritating words abstain, and thou take heed to thyself."

But passing now to the Septuagint, or Greek, translation of Genesis, this sixth
verse runs as follows:

"And the Lord God said to Cain, Wherefore didst thou become vexed, and
wherefore did thy countenance fall? If thou didst rightly offer, but didst not
rightly divide, didst thou not sin? Hold thy peace."

The Greek version, be it remembered, was made about three hundred years before
the Christian era, from a Hebrew copy that must have been more than a thousand years
older than the oldest Hebrew manuscript we possess now. This translation, moreover,
was perfectly familiar to the writers of the New Testament. And if we may reverently
picture the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews glancing over his Greek Bible before
penning his chapter of Old Testament worthies, we should remember that he had before
him these very words concerning Cain's not dividing rightly, when he wrote, "By faith
Abel offered unto God a more abundant sacrifice than Cain," (Hebrews 11:4).

Various suggestions, of course, are offered to show what Cain's sin consisted of.
A favorite one is that he brought no blood. But neither, in after years, did an Israelite
farmer bring blood, when he presented his first fruits to Jehovah, as commanded in
Deuteronomy 27:1-11. The Hebrew word commonly used for sacrifice with blood,
zebach, does not occur in the passage under consideration; for both Cain's fruits and