Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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Whosoever slayeth Cain—By a special act of divine forbearance, the life of Cain was to be spared in the then small state of the human race.
Set a mark—not any visible mark or brand on his forehead, but some sign or token of assurance that his life would be preserved. This sign is thought by the best writers to have been a wild ferocity of aspect that rendered him an object of universal horror and avoidance.
Geneva Commentary:
Not for the love he had for Cain, but to suppress murder, which was some visible sign of God's judgment, that others should fear by it.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in
the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
He tamely submitted to that part of his sentence by which he was hidden from God's face; for (Ge 4:16) he went out from the presence of the Lord, that is, he willingly renounced God and religion, and was content to forego its privileges, so that he might not be under its precepts. He forsook Adam's family and altar, and cast off all pretensions to the fear of God, and never came among good people, nor attended on God's ordinances, any more. Note, Hypocritical professors, that have dissembled and trifled with God Almighty, are justly left to themselves, to do something that is grossly scandalous, and so to throw off that form of godliness to which they have been a reproach, and under colour of which they have denied the power of it. Cain went out now from the presence of the Lord, and we never find that he came into it again, to his comfort. Hell is destruction from the presence of the Lord, 2Th 1:9. It is a perpetual banishment from the fountain of all good. This is the choice of sinners; and so shall their doom be, to their eternal confusion.
He endeavoured to confront that part of the sentence by which he was made a fugitive and a vagabond; for,