Thanks for your response.
You say:
Then why doesn't it say that in Genesis 4 but it does elsewhere? Simply saying that's what it means doesn't make it mean that. And what does it mean that it's "very close" to that meaning. It either is that meaning or it isn't.Actually this is very close to the meaning in Genesis 4, that Cain could no longer be a man of the soil.
You say:
And since the text doesn't give us these details then Nod could have been 100's of miles away. It could have been after he murdered Abel, even by centuries. There could have been no brothers born to Adam and Eve, etc. Cain could have been very young and the earth could have had a very small population. But then again, we aren't talking about the earth (globe). We are talking about a field.Here are examples of where Scripture doesn’t give us details: how far away was Nod? It could have been as close as five miles, a distance which can be walked in an hour and ten minutes. When did he move to Nod? It could have been before he murdered Abel, even by centuries. How many other brothers were born to Adam and Eve before this murder? What was the population of the earth at that time? How old was Cain at the time he murdered Abel? Unanswered question after unanswered question, where Scripture leaves out the details. It’s possible that Cain was about 500 years old at that time, and the population of the earth over 100,000. We don’t know because we haven’t been told.
And since it's so ambiguous, as you admit, the clearer reading of the text would be that there was Cain, there was Abel, offerings were brought, God was favorable toward one and not the other; Cain got mad and murdered his brother, God cursed Cain for the act and banished him from that region/country, hence Cain going to Nod rather than another field.
Dustin E Curlee