How many times is Cain mentioned in the Bible?
The word Cain appears 22 times in the King James Version, in 18 verses. It is found in 5 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Cain 20 times (22 with every form).
Cain in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Cain counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Cain | 22 | 20 |
| Cain's | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 22 | 22 |
First and last mention of Cain
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
The verse that uses it most is Genesis 4:5, 2 times (tied with Genesis 4:8, Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:22):
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Where the two translations differ
1 verse matches in the KJV but not in the World English Bible, and 0 verses match only in the World English Bible, usually because the other translation chose a different word there.
Joshua 15:57: counted in the KJV only
Cain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages:
Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages.
Verses with Cain on our topic pages
1 verse that uses Cain in the World English Bible is in our topic collections.
but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.
On: Jealousy
Common questions
How many times is Cain in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 19 of the 22 uses are in the Old Testament and 3 in the New Testament. Cain appears in 5 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Genesis has the most (18), then Joshua (1) and Hebrews (1).
Where is Cain first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 4:1: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD." The last is Jude 1:11.
More word counts: Ishmael, Esau, Judah, Babylon, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Jordan, or all 253 words.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-05.