Genesis 4:3

Summary

The verse marks a temporal transition ("at the end of days") and reports that Cain brought an offering to Yehovah consisting of some of the fruit of the ground. It establishes both the timing of the action and the nature of the gift Cain presents.

Key words

• va-yeHi ("and it happened", H1961) — qal narrative form, standard formula opening a new narrative unit in Biblical Hebrew.
• ketz ("end of", H7093) — masculine singular construct, linking to yamim to form the temporal phrase "end of days."
• va-yaVe' ("and he brought", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) narrative form of the verb "to come/enter," meaning Cain "caused [something] to come," i.e., "brought."
• peri ("fruit of", H6529) — masculine singular construct, governing ha-adamah, forming "fruit of the ground."
• minchah ("offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun, the direct object of the action, naming the gift itself.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yeHi ("and it happened"), followed by the prepositional phrase mi-ketz yamim ("from the end of days"), a temporal marker using the construct chain ketz + yamim ("end of" + "days"). This construction sets a chronological frame without specifying an exact duration — literally "from [the] end of days," rendered variously as "in the course of time" or "some time later" in translation.

The second clause introduces the main action with va-yaVe', a hiphil narrative verb built on the root meaning "to come" — the causative stem shifts the sense to "he caused to come," i.e., "he brought." The subject is Qayin ("Cain," H7014B). The object of the bringing is expressed through two stacked construct phrases: mi-peri ha-adamah ("from the fruit of the ground") specifies the material source, while minchah ("offering") names the category of the gift, appended in apposition rather than in construct with the preceding phrase. The final element, la-YHWH ("to Yehovah"), uses the preposition la to mark the recipient. The syntax places the source-material phrase before the term for the offering itself, so the Hebrew presents the "what it was made of" before the "what it was called."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mi-ketz yamim as μεθ' ἡμέρας ("after days"), a more compressed temporal phrase than the Hebrew's construct chain "from the end of days." The Vulgate expands this further with post multos dies ("after many days"), adding the quantifier "many," which has no explicit equivalent in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew minchah ("offering") is rendered as θυσίαν ("sacrifice") in the LXX and munera ("gifts," plural) in the Vulgate, showing lexical variation in how the term for Cain's gift is categorized across versions.