After Cain killed Abel, The LORD spoke with Cain about it. It's certainly a conversation with God, but one that doesn't fit my preconceived notion of prayer. Nevertheless, it goes into the study.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
So the Lord said to hims, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
This entire narrative seems to drip with Cain's petulance, self-pity, and weak attempts at irony.
Death has entered the world. God provided animal skins to Adam and Eve when they went from the Garden, and Abel has made an offering of blood from his flocks.
When God ask Cain about Abel, Cain replies, "Am I my brother's keeper?" -- implying that Cain does not keep a flock or herd - especially a flock that would include his brother. When God tells Cain that the very ground has cursed him and Cain will no longer harvest any crop - Cain complains that God has driven him away from this place and from his occupation; even though it was Cain's own sin that brought that sentence.
And in the midst of all that complaining. Cain bemoans being hidden from God's face.
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