What/where was the land of Nod in the Bible?

The land to which Cain went after the murder of Abel, when he went out from the presence of the Lord. It was on the east of Eden, but is not identified. Gen. 4:16. The name signifies 'wandering' or 'nomad;' the verb is translated 'vagabond' in Gen. 4:12, 14.

There had been ample space before the deluge for the development of many languages. Soon after the murder of Abel had furious Cain gone forth, an unrepentant despairing man, who failed to profit by Jehovah's patience, and dwelt in the land of Nod, away from the scene which even he could not face at ease or unabashed. There is no real ground to accept either von Bohlen's identification with India, or Knobel's with China. Enough for us to know that the land of his "Wandering," as it means, was toward or in front of the east of Eden. Still less can we identify the city Cain built and called "Enoch" after the name of his son. But the Holy Spirit plainly intimates the rise in his line (not of a rudiment of a different tongue nor of a distinct nationality which we in our ignorance might have thought only natural, but) of science and art, and even the fine arts. The holy wisdom of God took care to apprise His people of the true origin of civic life as well as of nomad, the latter not previous but posterior, of music and its practice in stringed and wind instruments, of the working in copper and iron, of polygamy, and self-occupied verse, the first recorded song of man. It is a picture of man's skill and energy, civilisation, letters, and luxury. The Pagans long after attributed these to their spurious gods but real demons. Here we have them shown to be the inventions of men far from God, vainly striving to make the earth of their exile a paradise of their own.

Nod was the country to the east of Eden into which Cain, the slayer of his brother Abel, wandered after he went out from the presence of the Lord with hands stained by his brother's blood (Gen. 4:16), and an accusing conscience within him.

Cain left the Lord's presence because he preferred this, as is clearly true of unbelievers today. He went to the land of Nod, which means "wandering," east of Eden (v.16). His wife there bore him a son who was named Enoch (meaning "dedicated"). Of course Cain's wife would be his sister, the daughter of Adam and Eve. We are told then that Cain built a city (v.17), which could take place only after some years, when his family had multiplied. Adam lived 930 years, long enough that his offspring could increase beyond his ability to count. We are not told how long Cain lived, but his brother Seth lived 921 years (ch.5:8).

Cain left the Lord's presence because he preferred this, as is clearly true of unbelievers today. He went to the land of Nod, which means “wandering,” east of Eden (v. 16). His wife there bore him a son who was named Enoch (meaning “dedicated”). Of course Cain's wife would be his sister, the daughter of Adam and Eve. We are told then that Cain built a city (v. 17), which could take place only after some years, when his family had multiplied. Adam lived 930 years, long enough that his offspring could increase beyond his ability to count. We are not told how long Cain lived, but his brother Seth lived 921 years (Gen. 5:8).

In the last verse of Genesis 3, Adam was driven out of the Garden; in verse 16 of our chapter Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord." The one was a compulsory judgment; the other a deliberate forsaking. To an unrepentant murderer the presence of God was abhorrent. We read in Romans 1 of the barbarians that, "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," and this was exactly the case with Cain. He departed to the land of "Nod," or "Wandering," carrying with him a wife and a son, and there he built a "city," some primitive kind of stronghold. As far as he could, he defied God's sentence upon him, and showed that he distrusted what God had done that he might not be slain. If the earth was not going to yield its produce for him, then let others have the trouble of cultivating it! Rather than wander he would settle down and protect himself!

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.

It was Cain then who "went out from the presence of Jehovah," and dwelt in that land which seems named from his exile; east of Eden. Jehovah was no longer before his mind. The world was his object. There were such as he feared already (Gen. 4:14); and Jehovah had given or appointed for him a sign, lest any should find and kill him. Fear of Jehovah he had none. What actuated mankind later wrought in him henceforth. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." The space which grace gives for repentance, ungodliness perverts to pursue its own will and indulge its lusts, in defiance of God and His word. His son is the "initiated," whose name his father gives to the city he was building: a most striking fact for that day, and above all notable in him whom Jehovah had sentenced to he a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.

And must we not connect this displayed glory in Eden, however intimately connected with man's fall and punishment, yet also with the mercy that manifested itself toward him, as we have already seen with other tokens of his condition, in which judgment united itself with and ministered to mercy? Labor and sorrow, and death itself, thus ministered, and do minister and this flaming sword with its cherubim, like Ezekiel's cloud and fire, speak of that presence of God which is not mere judgment only. So even for Cain there was a "face of the Lord" which he evidently identified with Eden, near to, if still outside of, paradise. "Behold, Thou hast driven me out from the face of the earth," he says, "and from Thy face shall I be hid;" and again we read that "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." It is the easier to realize, because after this, as we know, it pleased God to localize His presence thus in Israel, and there also with fire and cherubic emblems. It seems not doubtful that this was but in some respects a reproduction of what had been before at the gate of paradise, where sacrifice (which had so essential a part in the Mosaic economy) confessedly began.

God had not said to him to leave His presence. Cain does and goes out from His presence himself, to dwell where judgment had made him a vagabond, and then comes the world - the world as God sees it in its true place before Him.