unto the third and fourth generation…

Originally posted on April 30, 2009 – by Andre Piet

Within several churches discussion has arisen about the NBV rendering of the second commandment (Ex. 20:5):

For the guilt of the parents I make the children pay, also the third and the fourth generation, when they hate Me.

This translation is in several respects entirely incorrect.

1. The Hebrew word ‘avon’ does not mean ‘guilt’ but ‘depravity’.
2. The Hebrew word ‘paqad’ does not mean ‘to make pay’ but ‘to visit’ or ‘to attend to’.
3. The idea that God makes the children pay the penalty for the guilt of their forefathers has deep theological roots (original guilt), but stands in sharp contrast to the truth that “sons shall NOT be put to death for fathers” (Deut. 24:16; compare e.g. 2 Chron. 25:4).

The text in Ex. 20:5 stands in a concrete historical context. The people of Israel were on their way to “the promised land” and would have to dispossess the inhabitants of that land. But why only then? Had God not already four centuries earlier promised this land to the descendants of Abraham? Why did so many years of oppression first have to pass over the people of Israel? Why was the land not given into possession immediately? The answer to these questions had already been given centuries earlier to Abram, who was then still childless:

15 … you shall come to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 Yet THE FOURTH GENERATION shall return here, FOR THE MEASURE OF INIQUITY (‘avon’ = depravity) OF THE AMORITES IS NOT YET FULL.
Genesis 15

In other words, when the people of Israel entered the promised land, God executed judgment upon the inhabitants of the land. Not because of the depravity of their forefathers, but because they continued to persist in the depravity of their forefathers. Only at the fourth generation was Israel permitted to dispossess the land. Not earlier. This demonstrates how slow God is in carrying out His sentence. Executing judgment is for Him a strange work and never an end in itself.

For though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses. For not from His heart does He afflict or grieve the sons of humanity.
Lamentations 3:32,33

Exodus 20:5 is no evidence of God’s vindictiveness, but rather of His patience.

Delen: