# What have you done?

God uses a rhetorical question to rebuke Cain. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "What you have done is terrible!" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-rquestion]])

# Your brother's blood is calling out to me

Abel's blood is a metonym for his death, as if it were a person calling out for God to punish Cain. AT: "Your brother's blood is like a person calling out to me to punish the person who killed him" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metonymy]])

# Now cursed are you from the ground

This can be stated in active form. AT: "I am cursing you so that you will not be able to grow food from the ground" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-activepassive]])

# which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood

God speaks of the earth as if it were a person who could drink Abel's blood. AT: "which is soaked with your brother's blood" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-personification]])

# from your hand

Here Cain is represented by his "hand," to emphasize that he personally had killed his brother. AT: "that spilled when you killed him" or "from you" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-synecdoche]])

# cultivate

This means to do everything necessary to do so that the plants would grow well. See how "cultivate" is translated in [Genesis 2:5](../02/04.md).

# it will not yield to you its strength

The ground is personified as if it were a person who loses strength. AT: "the ground will not produce much food for you" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-personification]])

# A fugitive and a wanderer

You can join these words together. AT: "A homeless wanderer" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-hendiadys]])