Genesis 4:11

Now art thou cursed. A divine curse had already been visited upon the serpent and the ground (Gen. 3:14, 17); now for the first time it falls on man. The Hebrew phrase rendered in the KJV, thou art “cursed from the earth,” may with equal accuracy be translated as a comparative, ‘Thou art more cursed than the earth.” Some commentators have understood this text to mean that Cain was banished to a less fertile region. The context (vs. 12, 14) seems to favor this explanation, or perhaps the idea that because Cain had misused the fruits of the ground God would no longer permit him to gain his livelihood by tilling the soil. A wanderer in the earth (vs. 14, 16), whether shepherd or nomad, cannot be a successful farmer.