Genesis 4:10

Summary

Genesis 4:10 records a question and a statement addressed to Cain: he is asked what he has done, and then told that "the voice" of his brother's blood(s) is crying out from the ground. The verse uses direct speech introduced by a narrative verb form, followed by an accusatory question and a personified description of blood crying out from the earth.

Key words

• amar ("he said", H0559) — qal narrative form, marking the introduction of direct speech in the story sequence.
• asita ("you have done", H6213A) — qal perfect, second person masculine singular, indicating a completed action attributed directly to the addressee.
• demei ("bloods of", H1818) — masculine plural construct form of "blood," here in construct relationship with "your brother."
• tzo'aqim ("crying out", H6817) — qal active participle, masculine plural, agreeing grammatically with the plural demei, describing an ongoing action rather than a single completed event.
• ha'adamah ("the ground", H0127G) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the source from which the outcry originates.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-yomer ("and he said," H9001 + H0559), a standard construction for advancing dialogue in Biblical Hebrew narrative. The question meh asita ("what have you done?") uses the interrogative meh (H4100) with a qal perfect verb, framing the inquiry as directed at a completed act.

The second clause centers on qol demei achikha — literally "the voice of the bloods of your brother." The noun demei (H1818) appears in its plural construct form, distinguishing it from the ordinary singular dam. This plural form stands in a construct chain: qol ("voice," H6963A) construct with demei ("bloods of"), which is itself construct with achikha ("your brother," H0251G + H9021 "your"). The verb tzo'aqim (H6817) is a masculine plural participle, grammatically matching the plural demei rather than the singular qol. This means the participle "crying out" agrees with "bloods," not with "voice" — a detail visible only in the Hebrew morphology, since the participle form encodes number agreement that translations render as a single English verb ("cries out") attached to "voice."

The final phrase, min ha'adamah ("from the ground," H4480A + H0127G), uses the preposition min to indicate source, locating the outcry as originating from the earth itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew demei (H1818) is grammatically plural ("bloods"), but the LXX renders it with the singular αἵματος ("of blood"), and the Vulgate likewise uses the singular sanguinis ("of blood"). Modern translations such as BSB, RV1909, and SBLIBRE also render this as a singular "blood," following the LXX/Vulgate pattern rather than preserving the Hebrew plural form. Additionally, SBLIBRE and BSB explicitly insert "Yehovah"/"the LORD" as the speaker, information not present in the Hebrew text of this verse itself, which only continues with the unmarked verb va-yomer ("and he said").