Genesis 4:1-10 NASB
¹Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”
²Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
³So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
⁴Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;
⁵but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
⁸Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
Anecdotes
The Danube
Sir Henry Blunt, in his voyage to the Levant, tells us that at Belgrade, in Hungary, where Danube and Sava meet, their waters mingle no more than water and oil; and though they run sixty miles together, yet they no way incorporate, but the Danube is clear and pure as a well, while the Sava, that runs along with it, is as troubled as a street channel.
After the manner of these rivers it is with some brethren; though bred up together, and near enough each other in respect of their bodies, yet their minds have been as distant from each other as the poles are; which, when opportunity hath served, they have shewn in the effects of an implacable hatred.
Bassianus and Geta
On the death of the Emperor Severus, his two sons, Bassianus and Geta, could not agree about the parting of the empire, nor did they omit any means whereby they might supplant each other; they endeavoured to bribe each other’s cooks and butlers to poison their masters; but when both were too watchful to be thus circumvented, at last Bassianus grew impatient, and burning with ambition to enjoy the rule alone, he set upon his brother, gave him a deadly wound, and shed his blood in the lap of Julia, their mother; and having executed this villainy, threw himself amongst the soldiers, and told them that he had with difficulty saved his life from the malice of his brother.
Having parted amongst them all that Severus, his father, had been eighteen years heaping up, he was by them confirmed in the empire.
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