Kommentar zu Bereschit 4:15

לכן כל הרג קין VERILY, WHOSOEVER SLAYETH CAIN — This is one of the verses where the construction is elliptical (literally, which abbreviate their statements), which give only a suggestion and do not fully explain. “Verily, whosoever slayeth Cain” express a threat, suggesting the consequence — “thus shall be done to him”, “thus and thus shall be his punishment”, without explicitly explaining what the punishment would be.

Now because Scripture says, And the Eternal appointed a sign for Cain,⁴⁴⁴Verse 15. and it does not say, “and G-d gave him a sign,” or “made him a sign,” it indicates that He appointed for him a steady sign which would always be with him. Perhaps it indicates that as he wandered from place to place he had a sign from G-d indicating the way in which he should walk, and by that he knew that no misfortune would overtake him on that road.
In Bereshith Rabbah⁴⁴⁵22:27. the Rabbis similarly stated, “Rabbi Aba said: ‘He gave him a dog.’” Since he feared the beasts, He gave him one of them to walk before him, and wherever the dog turned to go, Cain knew that G-d commanded him to go there and that he would not be killed by any living creature. Now the Sages singled out a contemptible sign [a dog] as was befitting him, but the intent is that there was with him a perpetual sign showing him the way to go for such is indicated in the word vayasem (and He appointed).

כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם, I, G’d, announce that anyone who dares to kill Kayin, [i.e. who takes the law into his own hands, Ed.] would be punished seven more times than what the crime he committed appears to warrant. Anyone who is prepared to kill someone is called הורג, as for instance, in Hoseah 9,13 ואפרים להוציא אל הורג בניו, “Ephrayim too must bring out his children to his slayers.” The word שבעתים means “twice seven times,” as in Proverbs 6,31 ונמצא ישלם שבעתים, “when he is found out he must pay twice sevenfold.” G’d decreed therefore that when someone killed half the human race, or at least a third of the human race, the appropriate vengeance would involve a twice sevenfold penalty. This would manifest itself in such a slayer being a restless wanderer on earth for seven generations. Such a life is considered worse than death. When David prays in Psalms 59,12אל תהרגם פן ישכחו עמי הניעמו בחילך, “do not kill them lest my people will forget them; make them wanderers seeing it is in Your power,” he meant that they be killed only at the end of seven generations. David wanted the punishment of his enemies to last. If they would all die and disappear at once their absence would soon be forgotten. Kayin got his deserts at the end of seven generations as we know from traditional sources in Tanchuma 10.

לכן כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם. This is why he who murders Cain will be avenged sevenfold (or after seven generations). The reason the Torah wrote לכן, therefore, is to show that Cain knew full well that if G'd would not protect him, anyone who encountered him (Cain the murderer) would kill him. G'd placed a sign on Cain's forehead as a sign of pity because Cain had finally shown awareness of G'd's השגחה, supervision of the fate of every individual. This "sign" was the same as the tradition that by merely looking at a צדיק one can tell that he is a G'd-fearing person (compare Exodus 12,13: "this blood will be a sign for you." This means that the מצוה you have performed in preparing the paschal lamb will be accounted as a sign.) Such "signs" act as protection for the righteous against a variety of dangers.

ויאמר לו ה' לכן כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם, I have decreed that anyone killing Kayin will be punished twice sevenfold for that deed, irrespective of whether the killer is man or beast. The number “seven” mentioned here is not to be understood literally, but is a figure of speech for multiples of one. The number is used in a similar sense in Leviticus 26,21 where it also does not mean that G’d will punish the Jewish people sevenfold for each of their sins, but He warns them that their punishment will be very severe. In Proverbs 24,16 שבע יפול הצדיק וקם, the meaning is also not that the righteous will fall down seven times and rise again, but that even if a righteous person falls on bad times repeatedly, being righteous, he will recover. These many ways in which a killer of Kayin would be avenged could be that his killer will be afflicted with numerous sicknesses, diseases, not with just one. They would afflict him successively, until he will succumb to the last such disease.
According to Torah Shleymah on our chapter item #114 G’d told Kayin that in consideration of the fact that he now displayed fear of and reverence for G’d, he would have his lifespan extended for seven generations. Onkelos explains the expression שבעתים as receiving punishment spread over seven generations. Just as Kayin’s eventual death was suspended for 7 generations, so he who killed him would experience a similar fate. Eventually, Lemech killed Kayin. He was the sixth generation after Kayin, but the seventh counting from Adam.

הרג קין שבעתים יוקם. “whoever kills Kayin will be avenged sevenfold.” According to Nachmanides this means that whoever will kill Kayin will be avenged seven times over, i.e. .he will be punished for his deed as if he had killed seven people. This threat was designed to restrain anyone who would feel like killing Kayin.

ויאמר לו ד׳, nicht אליו, sondern לו, in Bezug auf ihn, antwortete ihm nicht, sprach in betreff seiner: !נקם - .לכן כל הרג קין! שבעתים יוקם — zusammenhängend mit קום — ist die Aufrichtung des zu Boden liegenden, mit Füßen getretenen Rechts, resp. auch der Persönlichkeit. Nicht der Erschlagene, der nicht wieder lebendig wird, sondern das verletzte Recht ist zu sühnen, wiederherzustellen. Wer sich eines solchen verletzten Rechtes annimmt, ist נוקם. Das göttliche Wort spricht: לא תקום, du sollst des in dir gekränkten Rechtes nicht, wohl aber des in jedem andern gekränkten dich annehmen. — Also לכן, darum, weil der Zustand, in den sich Kain selbst versetzt, so unerträglich ist, darum "höre es jeder, der den Kain, um Hebels Blut zu rächen, töten wollte!" Lebend wird Kain siebenfach schwerer gestraft, siebenfach stärker das Verbrechen gebüßt, Hebel siebenmal stärker gerächt, als durch einen augenblicklichen Tod. Subjekt zu wäre dann Hebel, oder, da dieser nicht genannt ist, es, der Mord: darum wird es יוקם so siebenfach gesühnt! Wir finden allerdings einmal עד יקום גוי אויביו (Josua 10. 13), wo das Objekt von נקם nicht, wie gewöhnlich, der Misshandelte, sondern der Verbrecher ist. Und könnte so auch hier Kain das Subjekt von יוקם sein.

לכן כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם, “therefore whosoever slays Kayin, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” The plain meaning of this verse is that seeing that Kayin was worried about being murdered, G–d assured him that anyone murdering Kayin even after he had lived seven generations would be held accountable by Him. This is why Lemech who held himself as guilty of killing Kayin, even though he did so unintentionally, told his wives what would happen to anyone killing him on that account (Compare verse 25 in this chapter.) Lemech’s children were the seventh generation, after Adam. (Adam-Kayin-Chanoch-Irod-M’chuyael-M’tushael-Lemech-(Yaval,Yuval Tuval Kayin) He told his wives that the whole generation of such a killer fathered by himself would be held responsible for his murder by G–d, seeing that what he had done was due to his being blind and therefore totally innocent of any intent to harm a human being.

לכן כל הורג קין, “therefore, because Kayin has already been so humbled,”

שבעתים יקם VENGEANCE SHALL BE TAKEN SEVENFOLD — God says, I do not wish to take vengeance on Cain now, but at the end of seven generations I will execute my vengeance upon him, that Lamech, one of his descendants, will arise and slay him. The end of this verse which states, “vengeance shall be taken in the seventh generation” — which is the vengeance taken on Cain for Abel — teaches us that the first part of the verse is a threat made in order that no creature might injure him. A similar elliptical expression is the following: (2 Samuel 5:8) “And David said, whosoever smiteth the Jebusites and getteth up to the gutter” — but it does not explicitly state what would be done to that person. Scripture, however, here speaks by a suggestion only, meaning, whosoever smiteth the Jebusites and getteth up to the gutter and approacheth the gate and conquereth it and the blind etc. … slaying also them (the blind and the lame) because they said, “there are the blind and the lame: David cannot come into the house” — he who smiteth these, I shall make him chief and captain. Here (in the Book of Samuel) it abridges the narrative, but in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 11:6) it explicitly states, “he shall become chief and captain.”

וישם ה' לקין אות, He gave him a sign in his heart, i.e. He fortified his self-confidence which had been shattered. G’d made the various beasts and men who would be born after him be in awe of him so that they would not attack him. We will come back to allegorical material pertaining to this verse when we explain verse 23.

וישם ה' לקין אות, “G’d placed a mark on Kayin;” the Torah did not write ויתן לו ה' אות, “G’d gave Kayin a mark,” but וישם, a word which describes something permanent. The mark with which G’d provided Kayin would remain visible for an indefinite period of time. Perhaps the meaning is that whenever Kayin, in his many journeys, would face a route unknown to him, the fact that he received no guidance would serve as a warning to him that that route was potentially dangerous for him.

“I do not wish... I will take my vengeance. The sevenfold vengeance is not referring to the killer of Kayin. For Lemech killed Kayin — and revenge was not taken on him to be killed after seven generations! Rather, “Whoever kills Kayin...” serves as a threat [that no creature injure Kayin], while “Revenge will be taken on him sevenfold” refers to Kayin’s own punishment. Thus, Hevel’s revenge from Kayin will come only after seven generations. This is seen from the end of the verse, “Revenge will be taken on him sevenfold,” that it pertains to Kayin and not to Kayin’s killer. (Re’m) Another reason why this verse cannot mean that sevenfold revenge will be taken on Kayin’s killer: why should Kayin’s killer be different from other killers, to have his punishment delayed seven generations? Perforce, “Revenge will be taken on him sevenfold” is a separate point — that Hashem will take revenge from Kayin after seven generations, [due to Kayin’s claim, “You cannot manage to bear my sin?”] Consequently, “This is one of those verses in which words are brief...”

וישם ד׳ לקין אות. Die Weisen sprechen sich verschiedentlich darüber aus, worin dieses Zeichen bestanden, je nachdem Kain als reuig Büßender, oder als dessen Gegenteil gefasst wird. Eine andere Auffassung im Midrasch, רב, erklärt es aber עשאו אות לרצחנים oder עשאו אות לבעלי תשובה :ר׳ חנן, Gott habe den Kain selbst zum Warn- oder Wahrzeichen für Mörder oder Büßende gemacht. Wir finden einmal שום in dieser Weise mit לְ־ konstruiert: לכלכם ישים שרי אלפים (I. Sam. 22,7). Demgemäß könnte es auch hier soviel wie וישם קין לאות, Gott machte den Kain zum Wahrzeichen, bedeuten. Aber auch ohne diese Anomalie dürfte es in gleicher Bedeutung gefasst werden. "Darum" — weil Kains Zustand ein so drückender ist — "höre es jeder, der ihn töten wollte: siebenfach wird also an ihm Rache genommen. Somit verhängte Gott über Kain einen augenfällig warnenden Zustand (אות), so dass keiner, der ihn trifft, ihn erschlage"; denn jeder erkennt in diesem Zustande ein warnenderes Wahrzeichen für Verbrecher, als in seinem Tode.

שבעתים יוקם, according to the plain meaning of the text, the meaning is that anyone who will kill Kayin will be avenged sevenfold for having killed him.

וישם ה' לקין אות AND THE LORD SET A SIGN FOR CAIN — He inscribed on his forehead a letter of His Divine Name (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 21). Other editions of Rashi add the following: another interpretation of “Whoever will find me will slay me”: this refers to cattle and beasts, since there were then no human beings in the world of whom he might be afraid except his father and mother, and, of course, he did not fear that they would slay him. He, therefore, said, “Until now the fear of me was upon all animals — as it is written”, (Genesis 9:2) “And the fear of you shall be upon all beasts of the field” etc. — now, however, because of my sin the animals will no longer fear me and will kill me. God immediately set a sign for Cain, viz., he again made the animals be in fear of him.

The verse speaks by hinting. It means that here, the verse speaks by hinting, but in another place it is spelled out: He who kills these, “He shall be a leader and general.”

שבעתים, an alternate word for שבעה, seven, just as ,ארבעתים in Samuel II 12,6, is an alternate word for ארבע, four. There is no point in reading anything special into this formulation as it is commonplace in Holy Scriptures. Our author proceeds to quote at least a half a dozen additional examples; [anyone interested can look this up in any concordance on the Bible. Ed.]

And the blind. The “blind” and the “lame” were idolatrous images. The “lame” corresponded to Yaakov [who limped on his thigh], and the “blind” corresponded to Yitzchak [whose eyes dimmed]. Upon these idols was written the oath Avraham swore to Avimelech that they would not wage war against one another. However, in David’s time the oath had been voided.

וישם ה' לקין אות, “G-d provided Kayin with a visible sign of identification to warn people not to kill him;” the Torah does not give details of the nature of this sign.

He inscribed a letter from His Name. It means a letter from Kayin’s name, the letter ת, which hints: “With this, תחיה (you shall live).” I.e., none shall kill him. [ת is a letter from Kayin’s name because his mother named him (4:1): “I have obtained (קניתי) a man with Adonoy”]. Alternatively, it means a letter from Hashem’s Name, the letter ה, which hints: “Therefore, whoever kills (הורג) Kayin...” (Maharshal)

לבלתי הכות אותו, “not to slay him;” the need for this was because mankind had not yet been warned about the sin of murder; at any rate, the penalty of Kayin remaining an exile was not lifted, ever.

כל מוצאו, this cannot be translated as “everyone” who would come across him,” but means “anyone” who would come across him. The use of the word כל in this sense also occurs in Exodus 22,21, כל אלמנה ויתום, where it does not mean “every widow and orphan,” but “any widow or orphan.” The law legislated there is not restricted to a widow who is also an orphan, but to any widow or orphan.