As humans were made from the ground so the man is to go back to the ground to work. This poetic end to chapter three throws us into chapter four where we find Cain working the soil. The soil reminds the reader of both the beginning and the end of humans. It is not surprising then that Abel is the first to be returned to the ground, his death symbolizing the disruption that exist in human relationships and therefore in the relation of God to human beings. The fact that Cain ends up in exile, is for the read, a place of identification. Like Eve and Adam we remember an Eden but are far far east of this place. Cain is sent further to the east. This chapter is began and now ends with birth. It being a chapter concerning the first murder, it seems odd that the first fruits from the woman are redeemed through a second son. Eve in this narrative is the hopeful promise that life will go on even through exile and death and lost, birth is a salvific event in this chapter.
