Psalms 79:12
12 Pay back our neighbors in full! ▼▼ 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.
May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord! ▼▼ Heb “their reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.”