Nod (Near Eden)

Nod, "wandering," was the land east of Eden where Cain settled after murdering his brother Abel and being driven from the ground he had farmed (Genesis 4:16). The name plays on the sentence God had just pronounced over him, that he would be "a fugitive and a wanderer" for the rest of his life (Genesis 4:12). No geographic identification is intended or possible; the name functions as commentary on Cain's condition rather than a real place on any map.