The first use of ''[[sin]]'' as a noun in the Old Testament is ofin Genesis chapter 4, verse seven "sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it"<ref name="JSB-17">{{cite book|last1=Berlin|first1=Adele|last2=Brettler|first2=Marc Zvi|title=Jewish study bible|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=[S.l.]|isbn=978-0199978465|pages=17|edition=2 Rev ed. (November 2014)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yErYBAAAQBAJ&q=burnt+offering&pg=PT2|access-date=1 April 2016|quote=Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, Yet you can be its master.}}</ref> waiting to be mastered by [[Cain]],<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|4:7|NIV|Gen 4:7}}, {{bibleverse|1Peter|5:8|NIV|''cf.'' 1 Pet 5:8}}</ref> a form of literary [[theriomorphism]].<ref>'' Synthesis: bulletin du Comité national de littérature comparée / Comitetul Național pentru Literatură Comparată, Institutul de Istorie și Teorie Literară "G. Călinescu." – 2002 "Sin is personified as (an animal?) which "crouches" at the door of Cain (Gen 4:7). As [[Gerhard von Rad]] (Genesis, 105) remarks, 'The comparison of sin with a beast of prey lying before the door is strange, as is the purely decorative use"</ref>
The first use of ''sin'' as a verb is when God appears to [[Abimelech]] in a dream "Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her" in {{bibleverse|Genesis|20:6|NIV}}.
