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 

Leviticus 26:21

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ⁵  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁶  seven times according to your sins.

Leviticus 26:28

26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ⁷  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.

Isaiah 65:5-7

65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!

Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’

These people are like smoke in my nostrils,

like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ⁸ 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ⁹ 

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ¹⁰  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ¹¹  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ¹² 

Jeremiah 32:18

32:18 You show unfailing love to thousands. ¹³  But you also punish children for the sins of their parents. ¹⁴  You are the great and powerful God who is known as the Lord who rules over all. ¹⁵ 

Luke 6:38

6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, ¹⁶  will be poured ¹⁷  into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.” ¹⁸ 

[4:15]  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.”

[4:15]  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.

[4:15]  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.

[4:15]  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.

[26:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[65:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”

[65:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ¹² tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.

[32:18]  ¹³ tn Or “to thousands of generations.” The contrast of showing steadfast love to “thousands” to the limitation of punishing the third and fourth generation of children for their parents’ sins in Exod 20:5-6; Deut 5:9-10; Exod 34:7 has suggested to many commentators and translators (cf., e.g., NRSV, TEV, NJPS) that reference here is to “thousands of generations.” The statement is, of course, rhetorical emphasizing God’s great desire to bless as opposed to the reluctant necessity to punish. It is part of the attributes of God spelled out in Exod 34:6-7.

[32:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “pays back into the bosom of their children the sin of their parents.”

[32:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Nothing is too hard for you who show…and who punishes…the great [and] powerful God whose name is Yahweh of armies, [you who are] great in counsel…whose eyes are open…who did signs…” Jer 32:18-22 is a long series of relative clauses introduced by participles or relative pronouns in vv. 18-20a followed by second person vav consecutive imperfects carrying on the last of these relative clauses in vv. 20b-22. This is typical of hymnic introductions to hymns of praise (cf., e.g., Ps 136) but it is hard to sustain the relative subordination which all goes back to the suffix on “hard for you.” The sentences have been broken up but the connection with the end of v. 17 has been sacrificed for conformity to contemporary English style.

[6:38]  ¹⁶ sn The background to the image pressed down, shaken together, running over is pouring out grain for measure in the marketplace. One often poured the grain into a container, shook it to level out the grain and then poured in some more. Those who are generous have generosity running over for them.

[6:38]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “they will give”; that is, “pour.” The third person plural has been replaced by the passive in the translation.

[6:38]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured back to you.”