Genesis 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ¹  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ²  Then the Lord put a special mark ³  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ⁴ 

Genesis 14:7

14:7 Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, ⁵  and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.

Genesis 19:11

19:11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, ⁶  with blindness. The men outside ⁷  wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Genesis 32:8

32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” ⁸  he thought, ⁹  “then the other camp will be able to escape.” ¹⁰ 

Genesis 32:11

32:11 Rescue me, ¹¹  I pray, from the hand ¹²  of my brother Esau, ¹³  for I am afraid he will come ¹⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 36:35

36:35 When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, reigned in his place; the name of his city was Avith.

¹ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

² sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

³ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

⁴ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

⁵ tn Heb “they returned and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh).” The two verbs together form a verbal hendiadys, the first serving as the adverb: “they returned and came” means “they came again.” Most English translations do not treat this as a hendiadys, but translate “they turned back” or something similar. Since in the context, however, “came again to” does not simply refer to travel but an assault against the place, the present translation expresses this as “attacked…again.”

⁹ tn Heb “from the least to the greatest.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men of Sodom outside the door) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³ tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁵ tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.

¹⁷ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

¹⁸ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

²⁰ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

²¹ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.