4 Abel too brought … וְהֶ֨בֶל הֵבִ֥יא גַם־ה֛וּא
In the “fair and balanced” presentation of these two boys, it’s now Abel’s turn to bring an offering. Once again, the combination of וַיָּבֵ֨א קַ֜יִן and וְהֶ֨בֶל הֵבִ֥יא — putting the second subject together with the conjunction and thus forcing the use of a non-consecutive form of the verb — tells us that they brought their offerings … simultaneously? … or perhaps simply that they both brought offerings and the “when” is not important.
Abel did not bring his offering as a result of seeing that Cain had brought one. It’s true that he גַם gam brought an offering, he “too” brought one, so let’s spend a moment thinking through that little word. We’ve seen it twice before in our text — and I notice that I failed to translate it or even discuss it the first time it occurs. So, as the cupbearer told Pharaoh in Gen 41:9, אֶת־חֲטָאַ֕י אֲנִ֖י מַזְכִּ֥יר הַיּֽוֹם. Here are the two previous occurrences:
The woman “took” some fruit and גם “gave” some (3:6).
The humans have eaten from the Tree of Sorting and might גם eat from the Tree of Life (3:22).
Now in 4:3–4 Cain has brought an offering and גם Abel has. So far, at least, when things fall naturally into pairs, the second one can have gam added to focus our attention on the connection: the woman took and gave; the people ate from Tree 1 and might eat from Tree 2 of the two special trees in Xanadu Park; twin (?) brothers might each bring an offering.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Bible Guy to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.