What Does Genesis 4:9 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word Cain uses for “keeper” is the same root used for the human charge to keep the garden, so his question echoes a responsibility he disowns.
THE MEANING
The question places Abel’s absence before you, while Cain answers with denial and a question that makes responsibility sound unreasonable. The verse holds the brother in view even as the speaker tries to place him outside his care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that saying “I do not know” makes another person’s fate none of your concern.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
sh-m-r
To guard, watch over, or keep.
Shomer is a form of shamar: a keeper is one who watches over what is entrusted. The related word mishmeret means a charge or guard duty, so Cain’s question carries the weight of responsibility, not just a job title.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To guard, watch, or keep.
שָׁמַר
This is the verb used for the human charge to keep the garden, giving Cain’s word an earlier echo.
mishmeret: A guard duty, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It shows that keeping can name an entrusted responsibility, the very idea Cain’s question puts at issue.
THE PATTERN
Keeping another life means active care for what is entrusted, not a title one can simply deny.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The same root שׁמר (shamar, to guard or keep) names both the garden’s keeping and Cain’s word for a keeper. That earlier charge gives his question its sting: the language already binds human life to keeping what is entrusted.
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