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So Cain has risen up and slain his brother let see what happens next. 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

(Gen 4:9) 

When God approached Adam and Eve about their sin, they tried to rationalize and blame shift, but they ultimately did not deny what they've done but Cain blatantly lies, by insisting that he says he does not know where his brother was. Furthermore, he was defiant before God asking God if he his brother's keeper. In other words, his response challenges God's right to even question him For a nation or a family to survive and prosper people within it must be responsible for the well-being of one another.  Cain’s answer should have been, yes, I know where my brother is, because I am my brother’s keeper. God then says.

The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

(Gen 4: 10-12)

In other words, God says, I know where Abel is, and so do you, and you are guilty. When you see that God placed him under a curse, please note this is not eternal damnation. This is an advancement on the Adamic curse from chapter 3 and now there will be even greater difficulty in raising food. I think the way we would put this is Cain has been sentenced to life with hard labour. Furthermore, he is going to be a restless wanderer, meaning he will be destined to wander around looking for a more fruitful place to grow crops  There's more. 

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

(Gen 4: 13-16)

Notice he does show remorse over his sin, only sorrow because he is being punished so severely. He hates the consequences of his actions, and he sinks into despair because he recognizes that he'll be driven from the blessings of living under God's favour. So, he's complaining about his punishment, and he is scared people will want to kill him if they know who he is. God then does an amazing and thing, He protects Cain by issuing a decree that if anyone kills Cain, they would suffer seven times the punishment. Then as a warning to others and as way of securing his safety from human vengeance the Lord set a mark on him. God did not approve of vengeance, so although he judges Cain, He protected him also. 

All right, all we've done so far is look at the first 16 verses. What happens in these opening versus is we see God trace the offspring of Cain in order to show us what will happened to the line of Cain. Now he will tell us about the line of Seth. 

We will return to these events in the next episode.