Genesis 4:24

Summary

The verse continues Lamech's poetic speech, asserting that if Cain was avenged sevenfold for his act, Lamech himself will be avenged seventy-sevenfold. It is built as a numerical escalation, contrasting Cain's case with Lamech's own claimed status.

Key words

• ki ("for/if", H3588A) — a conditional or causal particle that introduces the comparison; it can be read either as "for" (explanatory) or "if" (conditional), affecting whether the line states a fact about Cain or sets up a hypothetical parallel.
• shiv'atayim ("sevenfold", H7659) — a feminine dual form of the numeral "seven." The dual morphology here does not mean "two sevens" but functions as a multiplicative adverb, "seven times."
• yukam ("he will be avenged", H5358) — hophal (causative-passive) imperfect, third person masculine singular. The hophal stem marks the subject as the recipient of an avenging action performed by an unnamed agent; the imperfect aspect points to future or repeated action.
• Qayin ("Cain", H7014B) — proper noun, grammatical subject of the passive verb yukam, i.e., the one who is avenged, not the one avenging.
• shiv'im ve-shiv'ah ("seventy and seven", H7657 + H7651) — two separate cardinal numbers joined by the conjunction ve ("and"), rather than a single compound numeral; the construction juxtaposes "seventy" and "seven" as two added quantities.

What the text says

The clause opens with ki followed by the multiplicative shiv'atayim, then the hophal verb yukam, and finally its subject Qayin. Because Hebrew often places the verb before its subject, "Cain" here identifies who receives the avenging action expressed by the passive verb, not who performs it. The second half of the verse, "ve-Lemekh shiv'im ve-shiv'ah," omits a verb entirely — the hophal yukam from the first clause is understood to carry over, so the sentence reads elliptically as "and Lamech [will be avenged] seventy and seven [times]." The numeral for Lamech is not a single multiplied unit like shiv'atayim but two numbers strung together with the conjunction ve, producing an additive rather than multiplicative expression.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yukam with a perfect tense, ἐκδεδίκηται ("has been avenged"), differing from the Hebrew imperfect yukam, which points to future or ongoing action; the Vulgate's future passive dabitur ("will be given") aligns more closely with the Hebrew's forward-looking aspect. The LXX also uses the preposition ἐκ ("from") before both "Cain" and "Lamech," phrasing the vengeance as issuing "from" each figure, a construal not explicit in the Hebrew syntax, where Cain and Lamech are grammatical subjects of the passive verb rather than sources of an action. The BSB text appends "Seth and Enosh," which belongs to the following verse and is not part of the Hebrew wording of Genesis 4:24 itself.