Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 4:7

7. If thou doest well , shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door : And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him .

Or, for the future shalt do well, (i. e.) repent of thy sin, amend thy Life, offer thy Offerings with a willing and chearful mind and honest heart in Faith and Love, as Abel did.

Or, pardoned, received into favour? Or, exalted, and either preserved in or restoredunto those rights of the First-born, which thou art conscious to thy self, that thou hast forfeited? Or, elevated, in thy looks, i. e. would not, or should not, thy countenance have been upright and pleasant, which now is sad and dejected?

Sin is here taken, either 1. Properly, so the sense is, sin will be growing upon thee, one sin will bring in another, and that mali[illegible: 1+ letters] and purpose of revenge against thy Brother, which now lies hid in the secret chamber of thy Mind and Heart, lies at the door ready to break forth into the view of the World in open Murder. Or, 2, For the punishment of sin, as it is taken Gen. 19. 15. Levit. 5. 1. and 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 20. Numb. 18. 1. 2 King. 7. 9. Zach. 14. 19. So the sense is, if thou wilt go on in sin, and execute thy wicked purpose which I perceive lies working in thy Heart, be sure thy sin will find thee o[illegible: 1+ letters]t, as is said Numb. 32. 23. Thou shalt not long enjoy the Fruits of thy wickedness, but a dreadful judgment shall tread upon the heels of thy sin, and lie like a furious Mastive-dog at the very door of thy house, to seize upon thee, at thy first coming in or going out. For that person or thing which is very near to us▪ or at hand, is said to be at the doors, Matth. 24. 33. Iam. 5. 9.

Those two clauses may relate either 1. To sin, which may be here spoken of as a person; as it is Rom. 7▪ 8, 9▪ 11▪ &c. So the place may be rendred and expounded thus, The desire of sin is to thee, (i. e.) to assault, seduce, conquer and destroy thee: As it is said, Luke 22. 31. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you, &c. Or thus, its desire, objectively, not subjectively taken, (i. e.) Thy desire, intention, or resolution of smning; that evil motion of thy heart against thy Brother, shall be against (as the Hebrew particle el oft signifies) thee, (i. e.) howsoever at present it pleaseth thee, yet it is really not only against him, but against thy self, and will certainly turn to thy own ruine: But (for so the particle and is commonly taken:) If thou be wise, give no place to it▪ but resist it, do thou rule (for the future tense is oft put imperatively, as in the Ten Commandements, and it frequently signifies not what a man can or shall do, but his duty or what he ought to do as is evident from Gen. 20. 9. Mal. 1. 6. Luke 3. 14.) over it, i. e. conquer and subdue it, which is thy duty: or, thou shalt rule over it, (i. e.) by my grace assisting thy endeavours thou shalt be enabled to subdue thy evil concupiscences and passions, and so over-rule, prevent or remove those punishments, which otherwise sin will infallibly bring upon thee. Or, 2. To Abel, and so the sense is, And (as for thy Brother Abel, to whose Faith and Piety I have given this publick and honourable testimony, which thy naughty heart makes an occasion of envy, and malice, and intention of Murther, that thou mayst not by a mistake be led to the perpetration of so horrid a crime, know▪ that this favour of mine concerns only his spiritual priviledge, and the happiness of the Life to come, which thou despisest, but it makes no change in civil rights, nor doth it transfer the domimon from thee, whose it is by Birth, unto him; nor doth he so understand it, for notwithstanding this) unto thee shall be his desire subject, (i. e.) he shall and will nevertheless yield to thee as his Superiour, and thou according to thy own hearts desire, shalt rule over him. If it be said, the name of Abel is not here mentioned, it may be answered, that this is sufficiently included in the pronouns his and him, and it is not unusual to put those relative pronouns alone, the antecedent being not expressed, but to be gathered either from the foregoing or following words, of which see my notes on Gen. 3. 1.

Marginal references: Or, have the excellency.; Or, subject unto thee.