cain

2 definitions found

cain - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Cain
      n 1: (Old Testament) Cain and Abel were the first children of
           Adam and Eve born after the Fall of Man; Cain killed Abel
           out of jealousy and was exiled by God

cain - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Cain
  a possession; a spear. (1.) The first-born son of Adam and Eve
  (Gen. 4). He became a tiller of the ground, as his brother Abel
  followed the pursuits of pastoral life. He was "a sullen,
  self-willed, haughty, vindictive man; wanting the religious
  element in his character, and defiant even in his attitude
  towards God." It came to pass "in process of time" (marg. "at
  the end of days"), i.e., probably on the Sabbath, that the two
  brothers presented their offerings to the Lord. Abel's offering
  was of the "firstlings of his flock and of the fat," while
  Cain's was "of the fruit of the ground." Abel's sacrifice was
  "more excellent" (Heb. 11:4) than Cain's, and was accepted by
  God. On this account Cain was "very wroth," and cherished
  feelings of murderous hatred against his brother, and was at
  length guilty of the desperate outrage of putting him to death
  (1 John 3:12). For this crime he was expelled from Eden, and
  henceforth led the life of an exile, bearing upon him some mark
  which God had set upon him in answer to his own cry for mercy,
  so that thereby he might be protected from the wrath of his
  fellow-men; or it may be that God only gave him some sign to
  assure him that he would not be slain (Gen. 4:15). Doomed to be
  a wanderer and a fugitive in the earth, he went forth into the
  "land of Nod", i.e., the land of "exile", which is said to have
  been in the "east of Eden," and there he built a city, the first
  we read of, and called it after his son's name, Enoch. His
  descendants are enumerated to the sixth generation. They
  gradually degenerated in their moral and spiritual condition
  till they became wholly corrupt before God. This corruption
  prevailed, and at length the Deluge was sent by God to prevent
  the final triumph of evil. (See ABEL.)
  
    (2.) A town of the Kenites, a branch of the Midianites (Josh.
  15:57), on the east edge of the mountain above Engedi; probably
  the "nest in a rock" mentioned by Balaam (Num. 24:21). It is
  identified with the modern Yekin, 3 miles south-east of Hebron.