Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
Genesis 4:23-24 ESV
Through the Bible: Genesis 4-7
The Bible introduces human speech in poetry.
When Adam first sees the woman God has made, he doesn’t speak in prose. He sings:
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Genesis 2:23 ESV
It is a poem of recognition and delight. A naming of shared humanity. A celebration of unity.
But all that was before sin entered the world. And it doesn’t take long for the song to change.
Just two chapters later, Lamech, a descendant of Cain, gathers his wives and sings a different song:
“I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
(Genesis 4:23–24)
Poetry no longer celebrates shared flesh; it boasts in spilled blood.
Seven, already a number of completeness, is no longer enough. Lamech multiplies it. What began with God promising to guard Cain’s life (see Genesis 4:15) now becomes Lamech binding his family to an oath: if anyone comes after me, go after them harder. Seventy-seven times harder.
Sin hasn’t just spread. Now it’s writing poetry and doing math problems.
And yet, centuries later, Jesus not only changes the tune, He changes the equation.
Peter comes to Jesus with what sounds like a generous proposal:
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
(Matthew 18:21)
Seven again. A full number. A reasonable limit. And in Peter’s mind, a declaration that he was willing to go above and beyond what the rabbinic tradition mandated. This tradition, later codified in the Talmud, stipulated that if a person sins against another, he should be forgiven up to three times. If he sins again, forgiveness is no longer required.
Jesus’ response blew up any sense of self-righteousness Peter might have had:
“I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
(Matthew 18:22)
The same number Lamech used to celebrate vengeance. Jesus deliberately takes the math of violence and reverses it. Where Lamech multiplied retaliation, Jesus multiplies forgiveness. Where vengeance once escalated without restraint, mercy now does.
Some translations render Jesus’ words as “seventy times seven,” emphasizing the idea of limitless forgiveness—and that truth stands. But Genesis is consistently “seventy-seven,” and the echo is hard to miss. Jesus isn’t solving an equation. He’s answering a poem.
Lamech sang, I will be avenged without limit.
Jesus says, You will forgive without limit.
These are two visions of humanity.
One assumes that injury justifies escalation.
The other insists that forgiveness interrupts the spiral.
The Bible begins with violence compounding itself.
The gospel answers by outnumbering it.
Forgiveness is not sentimental. It is costly. It absorbs harm rather than passing it along. That is why Jesus doesn’t merely teach this ethic—he embodies it. The cross is forgiveness by the numbers: mercy exceeding sin, grace overwhelming the tally.
The question Scripture leaves us with is not whether we can count this high.
It’s whether we are still singing Lamech’s song—or learning a new one.
Forgiveness doesn’t deny the reality of violence.
It outnumbers it.
Related Content:
- Talmud 86b (from Chabad.org)
- Day 002: Walking With God (Gen 5:22-24)
- Year 1, Day 002: “Saw and Took” (Genesis 6:2)
- Day 002: Why Did God Choose Noah? (Genesis 6:8-9)
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