In the
second half of v. 7 the question is raised regarding the precise meaning and
function of the word rōbēṣ and the problem why the words ‘its desire’ and ‘you must
master it’ have masculine suffixes, when the word ḥaṭṭā’t, ‘sin’ is feminine. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is ḥaṭṭā’t masculine, so it is inadvisable to try to get round
the problem by rendering ‘sin is couching at the door’, as is often done, since
the word for ‘sin’ is feminine and the word rōbēṣ rendered ‘couching’ on this understanding, is
masculine.
Nor it is advisable to take the
masculine suffixes as referring to Abel, as has occasionally been done, and to
render ‘His desire is for you but you must rule over him’. Such a
translation is unnatural, as Abel has not been mentioned since v. 3, three
verses earlier, so his sudden return here unnamed would be totally unexpected.
It seems to make more sense if we regard
rōbēṣ as effectively a noun, more precisely a
substantival participle, and translate ‘a lurker (or coucher) at the door’, so
that the masculine suffixes in ‘its desire’ and ‘you must master it’ will then
refer back to that. Moreover, we should then relate this word to the
Mesopotamian demon called rābiṣu, which is actually attested in Akkadian
texts as lurking at the door or gate.
We should probably render the verse as
a whole as: ‘If you do good, is there not uplift? But if you do not good, sin
is a lurker (or coucher) at the door’ its desire is for you, but you must rule
over it.’ There is some similarity here in language to Gen. 3.16b, ‘Your desire
shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’. (John Day, “Problems
in the Interpretation of the Story of Cain and Abel,” in From Creation to
Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11 [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Studies 726; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 85-86)