Psalms 79:12-13

79:12 Pay back our neighbors in full! ¹ 

May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord! ² 

79:13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,

will continually thank you. ³ 

We will tell coming generations of your praiseworthy acts. ⁴ 

[79:12]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “their reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.”

[79:13]  ³ tn Or (hyperbolically) “will thank you forever.”

[79:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “to a generation and a generation we will report your praise.” Here “praise” stands by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.