Limud Tzedek, Part III: Violence and Accountability

(1) Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a man with the help of the Eternal.” (2) She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. (3) In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Eternal from the fruit of the soil; (4) and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The Eternal paid heed to Abel and his offering, (5) but paid no heed to Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry and his face fell.

(6) And the Eternal said to Cain, “Why are you so angry, And why is your face fallen? (7) Surely, if you do good, you will be lifted up. But if you do not do good, sin crouches at the door. The urge calls to you, but you can control it.”

(8) Cain said to his brother Abel … and then when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him.

(9) The Eternal said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (10) Then God said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! (11) Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (12) If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth.”

(13) Cain said to the Eternal, “My punishment is too great to bear! (14) Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” (15) The Eternal said to him, “I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken on him.” And the Eternal put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who met him should kill him. (16) Cain left the presence of the Eternal and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

(5) The Eternal saw how great was humanity's wickedness on earth, and how the desire of their thoughts is nothing but evil all the time. (6) And the Eternal regretted having made humanity on earth, and God's heart was saddened. (7) The Eternal said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans whom I created—people together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.”

(13) God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth.

(21) The Eternal smelled the pleasing odor, and the Eternal said to God's heart: “Never again will I doom the earth because of humanity, since the devisings of a person's mind are evil from their youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

(1) God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth. (2) The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which the earth is astir—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. (3) Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. (4) You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it. (5) But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of the human, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every human being for that of their fellow human being! (6) Whoever sheds a person's blood, that person's blood shall be shed; For in God's image did God make humanity. (7) Be fertile, then, and increase; abound on the earth and increase on it.”