He pitches another rock over the barley stalks.
“Is my work not vital? Of course. That’s not what he rejects. I am. What more could he…? Does he need blood?”
His brother calls from the hilltop. Cain lifts his face to him. “Blood I can get,” he mutters.
“Are you still angry?” Abel asks. “If you do well, he will accept you.”
“I know you’re right,” he replies. And favored. Cain feigns confession and waits for his brother to turn his back. The stone shatters against Abel’s skull. Cain strikes him again as thunder rolls above—what have you done?
Interesting. I don’t know if the biblical text intends to connect the shed blood of murder with the shed blood of sacrifice (maybe I missed it), but I find the linkage here fascinating.
“Blood I can get” — chilling.
Sorry to be so late to reply, but thank you. It’s remarkable that God was very kind to Cain after rejecting his sacrifice, even warning him against sinning in anger, but Cain must have mulled on his own poisonous thoughts to get to the point of murder.