What Does Genesis 4:5 Mean?
But to Cain and to his offering he did not gaze. And it burned exceedingly in Cain, and his face fell.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.THE KEY
A fallen face is the body making an inward rupture visible.
THE MEANING
When what you bring receives no regard, anger can rise and your face can fall; the verse places inward heat beside an outward change. What happens within you has a visible shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an unreceived offering leaves its bearer untouched: Cain’s anger and fallen face show that he is affected too.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְּלוּ
wayyippəlū
GROWS FROM
נפל
to fall, drop, or descend
“his face fell” in this verse is wayyippəlū. The verb comes from נפל (n-f-l), the root for falling. The text gives Cain’s face the motion of a fall, making his inner state visible rather than leaving it as an unnamed feeling.
ALSO GROWS
nōfēl: falling; one who falls
נֹפֵל
This participle from נפל preserves the image of a person or thing in the act of falling, as Cain’s face is described here.
nefilah: a fall
נְפִילָה
This noun from נפל names the act itself, showing how the verse’s verb-image can also describe a whole event of falling.
THE PATTERN
What takes hold within becomes visible through the body.
And the LORD said to Cain, Why do you burn? And why has your face fallen?A glad heart makes the face good, but by the pain of the heart the breath is crushed.And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Cain, Why do you burn? And why has your face fallen?The same verb root נפל (n-f-l), meaning to fall, appears in the description of Cain’s fallen countenance. The next verse makes that visible collapse the subject of a direct question.
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