Hey there! I was reading in Genesis and have a question about verse 4:7.
“If you do good, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. And (his) desire will be toward you, and you will rule over (him).”
Who are the “his” and “him” referring to in this sentence?
Thanks!
Amy French
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Hi, Amy!
The his and him in that verse refer to Abel.
For a person’s desire to be toward someone means that person will be in a subservient role. The phrase is used with Adam and Eve after the Fall when God told Eve that her desire would be toward Adam: “Your desire shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16). In Genesis 4, God is telling Cain that if he does right, he will occupy a higher position than his younger brother Abel, as was proper. And that means that Cain had no reason to envy and hate Abel – if Cain will only do what was right in God’s sight. But instead of doing that, Cain was stubborn and decided to just get rid of Abel.
Pastor John
I have added a parentheses to our translation of Genesis 4:7 in order to avoid confusion. It now looks like this:
If you do good, will you not be accepted? (But if you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door.) And his desire will be toward you, and you will rule over him.