Exodus 34:7
נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה וְנַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה פֹּקֵד׀ עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל־בָּנִים וְעַל־בְּנֵי בָנִים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִֽים׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
נֹצֵ֥ר חֶ֙סֶד֙ לָאֲלָפִ֔ים נֹשֵׂ֥א עָוֹ֛ן וָפֶ֖שַׁע וְחַטָּאָ֑ה וְנַקֵּה֙ לֹ֣א יְנַקֶּ֔ה פֹּקֵ֣ד׀ עֲוֹ֣ן אָב֗וֹת עַל־בָּנִים֙ וְעַל־בְּנֵ֣י בָנִ֔ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֖ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִֽים׃
καὶ δικαιοσύνην διατηρῶν καὶ ἕλεος εἰς χιλιάδας, ἀφαιρῶν ἀνομίας καὶ ἀδικίας καὶ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ οὐ καθαριεῖ τὸν ἔνοχον, ἐπάγων ἀνομίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα καὶ ἐπὶ τέκνα τέκνων ἐπὶ τρίτην καὶ γενεάν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
qui custodis misericordiam in millia; qui aufers iniquitatem, et scelera, atque peccata, nullusque apud te per se innocens est; qui reddis iniquitatem patrum filiis, ac nepotibus in tertiam et quartam progeniem.
Que mantiene su amor por mil generaciones, que perdona la maldad, la rebeldía y el pecado; pero que no deja sin castigo al culpable, sino que castiga la maldad de los padres en los hijos y en los nietos, hasta la tercera y la cuarta generación.”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Que guarda la misericordia en millares, que perdona la iniquidad, la rebelión, y el pecado, y que de ningún modo justificará al malvado; que visita la iniquidad de los padres sobre los hijos y sobre los hijos de los hijos, sobre los terceros, y sobre los cuartos.
maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes a subject (continuing from v.6) who maintains covenant loyalty toward thousands and forgives three categories of wrongdoing, while also affirming that unpunished guilt does not simply disappear, and that the effects of iniquity extend across multiple generations.
Key words
- noTzer ("maintaining", H5341) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing an ongoing habitual action ("the one who keeps/maintains") rather than a single past event.
- chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) — masculine singular noun, the object maintained; paired with la'alaFim ("to the thousands", H0505G) which uses the preposition la- ("to/for") plus the plural noun, indicating the scope of recipients.
- naqqeh lo' yenaqqeh ("certainly... he leaves unpunished / not", H5352 x2) — the infinitive absolute naqqeh followed by the negated imperfect yenaqqeh is a Hebrew construction that intensifies the verb; the infinitive absolute reinforces the finite verb it accompanies, and here the negation lo' ("not", H3808) sits between them, producing an emphatic denial of the action expressed by the root H5352 ("to leave unpunished/clear").
- poqed ("visiting", H6485I) — qal participle, masculine singular, parallel in form to notzer and nose', presenting this as another ongoing characteristic action.
- 'avot ("parents", H0001G) — the construct phrase 'avon 'avot ("iniquity of parents") uses 'avon ("iniquity", H5771G) in construct state before 'avot, marking a genitive-type relationship ("the iniquity belonging to the parents").
What the text says
The Hebrew presents a chain of four participles (notzer, nose', and later poqed) that function as descriptive, ongoing actions rather than single completed events — a stylistic feature common in Hebrew when characterizing habitual behavior. The first two participles govern objects joined by conjunctions: 'avon ("iniquity", H5771G), pesha' ("transgression", H6588), and chatta'ah ("sin", H2403A), each a distinct noun for wrongdoing, listed in sequence without further qualification.
The middle clause, ve-naqqeh lo' yenaqqeh, breaks the participial pattern and shifts to a finite verb form (imperfect) preceded by its own infinitive absolute from the same root. This construction — infinitive absolute plus finite verb of the same root — is a common Hebrew intensifying device; the negation lo' placed between them makes the resulting statement an emphatic negative regarding the root's action (H5352, "to leave unpunished" or "to clear/acquit").
The final section returns to a participle, poqed, followed by a construct chain: 'avon 'avot ("iniquity of parents") extended across four prepositional phrases with 'al ("on", H5921A), each introducing a generational term — banim ("children", H1121A), bene vanim ("children of children", H1121A construct + H1121G), shileshim ("a third generation", H8029), and ribe'im ("a fourth generation", H7256). The nouns shileshim and ribe'im are plural ordinal-type forms referring to generational categories rather than to specific individuals named elsewhere in the verse.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the infinitive-absolute-plus-imperfect construction (naqqeh lo' yenaqqeh) as οὐ καθαριεῖ τὸν ἔνοχον ("he will not clear the guilty one"), supplying an explicit object (τὸν ἔνοχον, "the guilty one") not present as a separate word in the Hebrew, which states the verb without a named object. The Vulgate similarly adds a subject clause, "nullusque apud te per se innocens est" ("no one is innocent before you by himself"), which restructures the Hebrew's verb-only emphatic negation into a different grammatical form. Where the Hebrew's final phrase lists four generational terms (banim, bene vanim, shileshim, ribe'im), the LXX gives only "ἐπὶ τρίτην καὶ [τετάρτην] γενεάν" ("to the third and fourth generation"), collapsing the four Hebrew terms into two ordinal generation markers.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.