Cain

I have this question bearing of Cain. Said Cain to the Lord: “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face I shall be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.” Must these words of Cain be construed as a confession of sin and a quest for grace and pardon? Was the Lord’s answer a kind of indirect reply to the effect that...