Bible Strands
Genesis 4:10
“What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Cain directly, immediately after Cain's evasive answer to "Where is your brother Abel?" in Genesis 4:9. The confrontation is not a question but an accusation framed as one.
The words — צֹעֲקִים (tzo'a.Kim), the active participle of צָעַק, renders the blood as actively crying out, not merely present. Paired with קוֹל (kol, "voice"), it gives the blood a person-like agency that the Hebrew grammar sustains.
The thread — Hebrews 12:24 picks up the same image and contrasts it: the sprinkled blood of Christ "speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." Hebrews 11:4 returns to the same event to ground Abel's faith in God's approval.
Why it lands — The verse refuses to let violence remain private or forgotten; it asserts that what was done has generated a claim that outlasts the act. It asks the reader to stop treating harm as something that disappears once the scene is left.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
- Psalms 72:14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their blood is precious in his sight.
- Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- James 5:4 Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Psalms 9:12 For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
- Numbers 35:33 Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- Revelation 6:9 And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
- Job 16:18 O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
- Job 31:38 if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,