Wives of Lemek, heed ye my saying!
For man do I slay, for my wound;
And child, for my bruise.
For seven-fold is Cain avenged,
And Lemek seventy-fold and seven."
Bishop Hall, in his Explication of Hard Texts, paraphrases it thus:
"And Lamech said to his wives, 'Adah and Zillah, what tell you me of any dangers and fears? Hear my voice, oh ye faint-hearted wives of Lamech, and hearken unto my speech; I pass not of the strength of my adversary: for I know my own valour and power to revenge; if any man give me but a wound or a stroke, though he be never so young and lusty, I can and will kill him dead.'"
Your correspondent H. Walter says that "every branch of Cain's family was destroyed by the Deluge." Where is the authority to be found for the tradition, quoted in an Introduction to the Books of Moses, by James Morison, p. 26., that Naameh, the daughter of Lamech the Cainite and Zillah, married Ham, the son of Noah, and thus survived the Flood?
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.