---
title: Genesis 4:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-4-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-4-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Genesis 4:10
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Genesis 4:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.

## JW Usage

JWs use Genesis 4:10 — "your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground" — as a proof-text for reading biblical "souls crying out" passages symbolically. When Revelation 6:9-11 is raised (the martyred souls under the altar crying "How long, Sovereign Lord?"), the Watchtower response is: this is like Abel's blood — a figure of speech for unavenged injustice, not a depiction of conscious souls after death.

## Protestant Usage

The Abel parallel actually backfires on the Watchtower reading of Revelation 6. Abel's "blood crying" is a single metaphorical verb — obviously figurative, because blood does not literally speak. The souls under the altar, by contrast, ask specific questions (6:10), receive specific answers, are given white robes (6:11), and are told to "rest a little longer." Those are five distinct actions performed on or toward them. Metaphorical "crying" cannot receive clothing. Revelation deliberately reaches back to Genesis 4:10 to establish the martyr motif — and then intensifies it. The martyrs are not silent blood; they are conscious persons asking the God of justice how long. And Hebrews 12:24 closes the loop: Christ's blood "speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" — the speaking-blood motif is already cross-testamental, and in Hebrews the "better word" is reconciliation, not vengeance.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Souls Under the Altar Cry Out](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/revelation-6-souls-under-altar.md) — Revelation 6:9–11 [Soul & Hell]