Discovery BoxGenesis 4:8 
Context4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” 1 While they were in the field, Cain attacked 2 his brother 3 Abel and killed him.
Genesis 11:3
Context11:3 Then they said to one another, 4 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” 5 (They had brick instead of stone and tar 6 instead of mortar.) 7
Genesis 11:7
Context11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse 8 their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 9
Genesis 19:32
Context19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine 10 so we can have sexual relations 11 with him and preserve 12 our family line through our father.” 13
Genesis 31:44
Context31:44 So now, come, let’s make a formal agreement, 14 you and I, and it will be 15 proof that we have made peace.” 16
1 tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.
2 tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).
3 sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).
4 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
5 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
6 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
7 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
8 tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the
9 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
10 tn Heb “drink wine.”
11 tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.
12 tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.
13 tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”
sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.
14 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
15 tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) followed by the preposition לְ (lÿ) means “become.”
16 tn Heb “and it will become a witness between me and you.”
