What Does Genesis 4:24 Mean in the King James?

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Genesis 4:24 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Lamech turns the sevenfold measure that once guarded Cain into a boast of multiplied retaliation.

THE MEANING

The verse shows how a claim of protection can grow into a claim for disproportionate retaliation: harm becomes a reason to demand a much larger return. The sevenfold measure around Cain now appears in Lamech’s mouth as seventy-sevenfold, making escalation itself the point.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that greater payback guarantees greater safety; Lamech’s boast shows retaliation multiplying beyond the injury it answers.

THE ROOT

יֻקַּם

yuqqam

GROWS FROM

נ־ק־ם

To avenge or exact retribution.

The root links being avenged with vengeance and the avenger: the same action can be heard as a response to harm or as the force that keeps harm moving. Here Lamech enlarges that measure from sevenfold to seventy-sevenfold.

ALSO GROWS

nāqām: Vengeance or retribution.

נָקָם

This is the force behind the “avenged” measure: harm is answered by a claim for redress.

nōqēm: One who avenges; an avenger.

נֹקֵם

The branch names the agent who carries retribution forward, exposing how a response to injury can become a continuing role.

קַיִן

Qayin

GROWS FROM

קנה

To acquire, gain, or possess; the narrative echoes this root in Cain’s naming.

In the surrounding naming scene, Cain’s name is placed beside Eve’s ⁨קָנִיתִי⁩ (qānîtî), “I have acquired.” That echo sits sharply beside Lamech’s speech: the one named through acquisition becomes the measure by which retaliation is claimed and then multiplied.

ALSO GROWS

qānîtî: I have acquired.

קָנִיתִי

Eve’s phrase in Genesis 4:1 echoes Cain’s name and gives the name an acquisition sound within the narrative.

miqneh: Possession or livestock; something acquired.

מִקְנֶה

This branch carries acquisition into the realm of what is held, adding resonance to Cain’s narrative name without claiming a settled etymology.

THE PATTERN

A count can bound retaliation, magnify it, or be redirected toward repeated release.

And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Genesis 4:15 · KJVSevenfold vengeance is set as a boundary around Cain, the measure Lamech later magnifies.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Exodus 21:24 · KJVThe response is measured against the injury, unlike Lamech’s multiplied claim.

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:22 · KJVIn an exchange about forgiving, the repeated count is turned from escalating vengeance toward repeated release.

THE THREAD

And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Genesis 4:15 · KJV

“Vengeance shall be taken” and “avenged” share the Hebrew root ⁨נ־ק־ם⁩ (n-q-m), to avenge or exact retribution. The sevenfold measure that marks a limit around Cain becomes, in Lamech’s mouth, a seventy-sevenfold threat.

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