Genesis 4:15

Verse

RBT Translation:

And Yahweh is saying to-himself, `To an upright, the whole has killed Spearhead, seven-times he is standing up.<sup>180</sup>` And Yahweh is placing for Spearhead a sign to except the smiting of אֶת-him the whole of him-who-finds him.¹⁸¹

RBT Paraphrase:

You killed him

And He Is is saying to himself, "To the upright, everyone has killed Spearhead, seven-times he is standing up." And He Is is setting a sign for Spearhead to prevent everyone who finds himself from killing his eternal self.

The Eternal Self.

LITV Translation:
And Jehovah said to him, If anyone kills Cain, he shall be avenged sevenfold. And Jehovah set a mark on Cain, so that anyone who found him should not kill him.

ESV Translation:
Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.

Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And the Lord God said to him, Not so, anyone that slays Cain shall suffer sevenfold vengeance; and the Lord God set a mark upon Cain that no one that found him might slay him.

Footnotes

180

Hebrew יקם was taken for the root נקם to avenge, take vengeance (#5358) as a “causative-passive Hophal form". Quite a bit of crafty work has been done on what is otherwise a simple Qal verb to stand (#6965) in the third person masculine incomplete: he is standing up. In fact, the same verb was just used in in verse 8: "and Cain stood up [יקם] in the field"

181

and he is, the whole finding me, he is slaying me. Yahweh said that anyone who kills Cain is avenged sevenfold. Cain is being equated numerically with seven.

Lamech we learn is 70. Jesus teaches about forgiving certain brothers, “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Master, how often will my brother miss into me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” (Matt. 18:21-22. “if he missed into you seven times in the Hot-one, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I turn-back,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:4). Forgive us our misses, as we forgive those who missed against us.

places to (or for) Spearhead a sign. The word “sign” is from the Hebrew oth (Strong’s #226) and means sign, mark, symbol. It is used of the rainbow in Genesis 9:12, flag emblems in Num. 2:2, the luminaries in Gen. 1:14, the circumcision in Gen. 17:11, etc. It is always used of something visible and objective. The Hebrew itself is identical to the mark of the accusative את which constitute the first and last letters of the alphabet:

אוֹת

“sign, mark”