Annotation LXVII, The clause "vagabond and fugitive," badly rendered by the Septuagint (Genesis 4:12)

Annotatio LXVII

”A vagabond and a fugitive shalt thou be.” — Genesis 4:12

The Septuagint interpreters, for that which is had in Hebrew — נָע וָנָד, na va-nad, that is, “A vagabond and a fugitive shalt thou be” — translated with little consonance [inaccurately], Στένων καὶ τρέμων, that is, “Groaning and trembling.”¹ Hence arose among the Greek expositors an opinion — namely, that Cain, after his brother was slain, never ceased from tears and groans, but was perpetually tormented with a trembling of the body, the frame of his limbs being dissolved, on account of the fratricide committed.