Genesis 4:24

4:24 If Cain is to be avenged seven times as much,

then Lamech seventy-seven times!” ¹ 

Leviticus 26:18

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ²  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ³ 

Leviticus 26:21

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ⁴  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁵  seven times according to your sins.

Leviticus 26:24

26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ⁶  seven times on account of 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.

Psalms 79:12

79:12 Pay back our neighbors in full! ⁸ 

May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord! ⁹ 

Proverbs 6:31

6:31 Yet ¹⁰  if he is caught ¹¹  he must repay ¹²  seven times over,

he might even have to give ¹³  all the wealth of his house.

[4:24]  ¹ sn Seventy-seven times. Lamech seems to reason this way: If Cain, a murderer, is to be avenged seven times (see v. 15), then how much more one who has been unjustly wronged! Lamech misses the point of God’s merciful treatment of Cain. God was not establishing a principle of justice when he warned he would avenge Cain’s murder. In fact he was trying to limit the shedding of blood, something Lamech wants to multiply instead. The use of “seventy-seven,” a multiple of seven, is hyperbolic, emphasizing the extreme severity of the vengeance envisioned by Lamech.

[26:18]  ² tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ³ tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[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.”

[79:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “Return to our neighbors sevenfold into their lap.” The number seven is used rhetorically to express the thorough nature of the action. For other rhetorical/figurative uses of the Hebrew phrase שִׁבְעָתַיִם (shiv’atayim, “seven times”) see Gen 4:15, 24; Ps 12:6; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[79:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “their reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.”

[6:31]  ¹⁰ tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.

[6:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “is found out.” The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to the imperfect nuances. Here it introduces either a conditional or a temporal clause before the imperfect.

[6:31]  ¹² tn The imperfect tense has an obligatory nuance. The verb in the Piel means “to repay; to make restitution; to recompense”; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “must pay back.”

[6:31]  ¹³ tn This final clause in the section is somewhat cryptic. The guilty thief must pay back sevenfold what he stole, even if it means he must use the substance of his whole house. The verb functions as an imperfect of possibility: “he might even give.”