Genesis 4:24

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

then Lamech seventy-seven times!” ¹ 

Leviticus 26:21

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ²  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ³  seven times according to your sins.

Psalms 79:12

79:12 Pay back our neighbors in full! ⁴ 

May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord! ⁵ 

[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.

[26:21]  ² tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ³ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[79:12]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “their reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.”