創世記四章七節的希伯來經文語意相當不明確，這是許多學者的共同感受。從古至今的各種舊約聖經翻譯版本對於這一節所作的翻譯，都免不了會呈現出文法（字形；morphological），字義（lexical），或語法（syntactical）上的問題。除了舊約聖經翻譯版本之外，有不少學者試圖努力釐清並解開這一節經文中的諸多問題。2 本文希望加入這些學者的討論。在對於翻譯這一節經文的困難，以及曾經被提出來過的解決方案加以回顧之後，本文將試著貢獻幾項新的觀點。此外，本文也會試著論述，當讀者對於這一節經文有不同的理解時，對於該隱的故事也會產生不同的看法。

Genesis 4:7, with its apparent grammatical and syntactical difficulties and its enigmatic tone, has been attracting scholars’ attention and efforts. This paper provides an in-depth review of the problems encountered in the most popular reading of this verse as reflected in major English translations since the King James Version, and endeavors to propose a few new solutions to these problems with the support of syntactical and lexical evidences provided in the Hebrew Bible, under a full respect of the Masoretic text including both consonants and vowels. The proposed solutions turn out to facilitate a future-oriented perspective in the reading of Gen 4:7, which would highlight an existential situation of a created human being in the face of divine admonition that would have been easily neglected in the popular reading of this verse. The revised reading also supports a presentation of Gen 4:7 as a major key to the understanding of the story of Cain in Genesis 4, and reinforces the coherence between the story of Cain and the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3.