What is a vagabond in the Bible?
Answered from the commentary of Morrish Bible Dictionary, J. N. Darby, W. T. P. Wolston and 10 others
In Scripture a vagabond is a wanderer, from the Latin *vagabundus*, and the word is not used as a term of abuse. It appears in God's sentence on Cain in Genesis 4:12 and Genesis 4:14, in Psalm 109:10, and in Acts 19:13, where the Revised Version has "strolling". The land of Nod, where Cain went to live, takes its name from the same Hebrew verb, so it means "wandering". In Scripture's sense a vagabond is a man who is always on the move, never settled and never at rest. He is a man who has no home, which sets him apart from the fugitive, who has fled from home; from the stranger, who is away from home; and from the pilgrim, who is on his way home. A pilgrim and a wanderer may look alike, but the pilgrim has a definite purpose before him, while the wanderer goes here and there without one.
Cain's sentence gives the word its fullest meaning. After murdering his brother, Cain was cursed from the earth, so that the ground would not yield to him, and he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond. He would live as a prey to a bad conscience and anxious fears, shunned by all around him. The commentators take this as a description of every unbeliever, and of what man is by nature: a wanderer who goes in every direction looking for rest or satisfaction and never finds it. Cain disliked the condition and would not stay in it. He built a city in Nod, settling down where God had made him a vagabond, so that he could make the world as pleasant as possible without God. Several of these authors also see Cain as a type of the Jewish nation, which became wanderers among the nations after the death of Christ and yet is preserved by God. The word is used in the same way elsewhere. In Psalm 109:10 the wicked man, typical of Judas, has children who are "continually vagabonds" and beg. The "vagabond Jews" of Ephesus were wandering exorcists who went from place to place claiming to cast out demons. Leaving one's home and family, the place God appoints in the world, is a picture of wretchedness. The comfort set against all this is that the Good Shepherd calls men from their restless wandering and brings them to rest at His feet.
Verses: Genesis 4:12, Genesis 4:14, Psalms 109:10, Acts 19:13, Genesis 4:11, Genesis 4:16
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
A term not used opprobriously in scripture, but as signifying a 'wanderer': from the Latin vagabundus. Gen. 4:12, 14; Ps. 109:10. In Acts 19:13 the R.V. has 'strolling.'
"What hast thou done?" we hear then is God's solemn query to Cain; and thereafter He says, "The voice of thy brother's blood cries to me from the ground." The righteous martyr has been slain as a witness for the truth, and what follows? God says to Cain, "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield to thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." And Cain departs from God, and proves that he is one. He does not like to be called a vagabond, but that is really what man is by nature. Do you know what vagabond means? It means a man who is always on the move — a man that is never settled — never at rest. That is a vagabond, according to Scripture.
The next thing we read of Cain is that he "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod." Do you know what "Nod" means? It means "wandering." The land was named Nod, and men have since then been wandering truly. And Cain "builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch." He builds a city. He as it were says, I have gone out from the presence of God, but I will try to make myself as happy and as comfortable as possible; I will build a city, and will forget that I am a vagabond, and I will forget that I am a sinner. Thus Cain started what you and I now call the world.
They were, of course, strangers in the lands of their dispersion, as the first verse of the Epistle told us, but this is not what is alluded to here. Every Christian is a stranger and pilgrim, and we need not be surprised at this, since by the very fact that we are brought into such near and honoured relationship with God there must be a corresponding severance from the world. The world is entirely antagonistic to God and we cannot hold with both at the same time. It must be one or the other. For us it is relationship and communion with God, and hence strangership and pilgrimage in the world. The world itself began with Cain, who was "a fugitive and a vagabond" (Gen. 4:12). We may summarize the matter thus: —
A fugitive is a man who has fled from home. A vagabond is a man who has no home. A stranger is a man who is absent from home. A pilgrim is a man who is on his way to home.
The actual presence of God is the true home of our souls and we are disconnected from the world system so as to be strangers in it, though left in it for a time to show forth the excellencies of God. Still, we do not wander aimlessly for we are pilgrims also, and this means that we have an objective before us — a fixed point of destiny to which we wend our way.
Cain would be “a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth” (v. 12). This is a description of every unbeliever. As a fugitive he is virtually running away from God, never facing up to his guilt and his need of a Savior. As a vagabond, he is a wanderer, going in every direction to seek rest or satisfaction but never finding it. Thus even on earth the condition of the unbeliever is sad, but how much more so in eternity!
Cain's response to God (v. 13-14) was not contrite, but protesting. Instead of being ashamed, he was sorry for himself: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” This is in contrast to the words of the robber dying on a cross next to the Lord Jesus. He said, “we receive the due reward of our deeds” Luke 23:41). How much better it is to submit to God's penalty rather than to resent it, for submission leaves the way open for God to show mercy. But Cain says that God has driven him out from the face of the earth (not God's actual words), and adds that he would be hid from God's face. Yet it was Cain himself who had chosen this: he had sought to hide his evil works from the Lord. How can one deliberately lie to the Lord and expect the light of God's face in his life? God practically confirmed Cain's choice by His word, and Cain is unhappy. In fact, he goes farther and says that whoever finds him would kill him. But is it not only to be expected that a murderer should live in fear of being killed? Why did he not think of this before he killed Abel?
However, the Lord set a mark upon Cain, saying that vengeance would be taken sevenfold on whoever would kill Cain. God was dealing with him, and man must not interfere. In Noah's day, later on, God gave authority to governmental powers to execute a murderer (Gen. 9:5-6), but in Cain's time human government had not been introduced. God was dealing with Cain directly. This is also a striking picture of God's dealing with the nation Israel after they had suffered as a fugitive, fleeing from the God of their fathers, and as a wanderer, finding no resting-place for the sole of their foot.. Still, God does not give permission to Gentiles to exterminate them, though this has been tried time and again. God's mark is upon Israel, and those nations that make her suffer will themselves suffer God's retribution.
271 That which nourishes the flesh and self-love is the great system which is called the world. Man wishes to be something in his own eyes; he would like to forget God, and make himself happy, if possible, without Him. Thus Cain, when he was driven out from God's presence, after Abel's death, went away from before His face, judged in such a manner by God, that he could not hope to be admitted again into His presence to enjoy communion with Him; for God had made him to be a vagabond and a wanderer on the earth (a striking type of the Jews at this time, after having put to death the Lord Jesus, who had become, so to speak, their brother). But Cain was not willing to remain a poor vagabond; at all events he did not wish to leave his family in such a state; he wished it to escape his own proper lot; and to this end he built a city in the land of Nod ("Nod" is the Hebrew word translated vagabond in the first instance); he desired that his family should be established in the country where God had made him a vagabond. He names the city after his son, as do the great people of this world. There is to be found the father (that is, the inventor) of music, the father of them that work in brass and iron; there the riches of this present age were heaped together, much cattle. This is the world!
"Wanderers" and pilgrims may resemble one another, but a wanderer is a very different person from a stranger and pilgrim. A stranger and pilgrim has a definite purpose before him. A wanderer is merely going here and there without any definite purpose. Did you ever think that Rome does not give a definite hope to the people? Those who are governed by Rome are not journeying to a heavenly inheritance. "No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them," is a favorite verse. According to Rome, the best of them are going into purgatory. They are simply wandering in that which does not belong to them, and their end is uncertainty.
Whatever be the means of one who fears God, self-indulgence is unworthy of one who now lives in a scene where we have the poor always with us, and many and sudden reverses to call forth special compassion. What a lesson for the Christian when on the two occasions the Lord fed the multitude miraculously, it was on barley loaves and small fishes. How far from show or appetizing! And the prayer taught the disciples to ask for "sufficient bread." The full soul is unworthy of His name, and the honeycomb he loathes convicts him of following the Lord of glory afar off. It is happy when one is hungry enough to relish every bitter thing put before us by our God and Father.
When God pronounced Cain a fugitive and a vagabond because he slew his righteous and accepted brother, well for him to have heeded the word of the Lord, but there is no such call for one ordinarily. The family is the place appointed as the rule in the world as it is. Even the bird owns the attraction of her nest. Wandering from either is a picture of wretchedness.
The incident recorded in Acts 19:13-16, raises the question as to what was an 'exorcist'? The disciples of the Lord who were able to cast out demons were never so called. Were these vagabond or wandering Jews able to cast out demons irrespective of the name of the Lord Jesus? or did they only pretend to do so? Matt. 12:27 is often quoted to show that the Lord admitted that such persons were able to cast out demons. Is it not more probable that the Lord was in that passage alluding to His disciples? The Lord was a mysterious person whom they could not comprehend; and He was charged with casting out demons by the prince of demons; but the Lord said, By whom do your children (the origin of whom you do know) cast them out? On the other hand, the Lord describes some of the lost as pleading that they had cast out demons in His name, Matt. 7:22; but these also speak of having prophesied in His name; so that they would be persons who had made a profession, as Judas who was sent out with the other apostles.
It was all over with Cain, and as God said to him, and as he also said, he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. He declared he was made a vagabond, and then he went and built a city in the land of Nod, i.e., vagabond.
Verses
- Genesis 4:11–1211And now be thou cursed from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. 12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield thee its strength; a wanderer and fugitive shalt thou be on the earth.
- Genesis 4:14Behold, thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a wanderer and fugitive on the earth; and it will come to pass, [that] every one who finds me will slay me.
- Psalms 109:10Let his sons be vagabonds and beg, and let them seek [their bread] far from their desolate places;
- Acts 19:13And certain of the Jewish exorcists also, who went about, took in hand to call upon those who had wicked spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches.
- Genesis 4:16And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, toward the east of Eden.