Genesis 4:5

Summary

Genesis 4:5 states that God did not regard Cain or his offering, in contrast to the acceptance of Abel's offering in the preceding verse. As a result, Cain's anger burns intensely and his face falls, an idiom describing a change in emotional expression.

Key words

• sha'ah ("he looked", H8159) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular; describes a completed act of "regarding" or "looking with favor," here negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
• yichar ("burned", H2734) — qal narrative (vav-consecutive) form; the subject of "burning" is not stated in this clause, but the construction le-Qayin ("to Cain") marks Cain as the one affected by the burning, i.e., his anger.
• me'od ("exceedingly", H3966) — intensifying adverb-like term modifying the burning, marking the degree of the reaction.
• panim ("face", H6440) — masculine plural construct noun; in Biblical Hebrew this word is grammatically always plural (a so-called plurale tantum), even when referring to a single face, which is why the verb yippelu ("they fell", H5307K) agrees with it in the plural.
• minchato ("his offering", H4503G + H9023) — feminine singular construct noun with 3ms suffix, parallel to the minchah of Abel mentioned in the prior verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with a doubled prepositional phrase, ve'el-Qayin ve'el-minchato ("and to Cain and to his offering"), both governed by the single negated verb lo' sha'ah ("he did not look/regard"). This mirrors the structure of verse 4, where the same verb (without negation) applies to Abel and his offering, creating a grammatical parallel that sets up the contrast between the two brothers.

The next clause uses the narrative vav on yichar ("and it burned"), a common construction for sequential action in Hebrew narrative. The grammatical subject of "burning" is left unexpressed; the verb functions idiomatically with the preposition le- ("to/for") plus a person to express that person's anger, here intensified by me'od ("exceedingly"). The final clause, wayyippelu panav ("and his face fell"), again uses the narrative vav and pairs the plural verb yippelu with the plural noun panim, an idiom describing a visible change in facial expression, distinct from any physical falling.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lo' sha'ah as ou prosesche ("he did not attend to"), a similar sense of disregard. For the final clause, the LXX uses the singular tō prosōpō ("in the face"), and the Vulgate similarly has the singular vultus ("countenance"), where the Hebrew panim is grammatically plural (though this plural form is standard for "face" in Hebrew and does not necessarily indicate multiple faces).