here 'lieth' is employed only to express the _crouching_ of an
animal, and frequently of a wild animal. The picture, then, is of
the wrong-doer's sin lying at his door there like a crouching tiger
ready to spring, and if it springs, fatal. 'If thou doest not well,
a wild beast crouches at thy door.'

Then there follow, with a singular swift transition of the metaphor,
other words still harder to interpret, and which have been, as a
matter of fact, interpreted in very diverse fashions. 'And unto thee
shall be _its'_ (I make that slight alteration upon our version)
'desire, and thou shalt rule over it.' Where did we hear these words
before? They were spoken to Eve, in the declaration of her punishment.
They contain the blessing that was embedded in the curse. 'Thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' The longing of
the pure womanly heart to the husband of her love, and the authority
of the husband over the loving wife--the source of the deepest joy
and purity of earth, is transferred, by a singularly bold metaphor,
to this other relationship, and, in horrible parody of the wedded
union and love, we have the picture of the sin, that was thought of
as crouching at the sinner's door like a wild beast, now, as it were,
wedded to him. He is mated to it now, and it has a kind of tigerish,
murderous desire after him, while he on his part is to subdue and
control it.

The reference of these clauses to the sin which has just been spoken
of involves, no doubt, a very bold figure, which has seemed to many
readers too bold to be admissible, and the words have therefore been
supposed to refer to Abel, who, as the younger brother, would be
subordinate to Cain. But such a reference breaks the connection of
the sentence, introduces a thought which is not a consequence of