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  • From: Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Exodus 20:5,6
  • Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 22:26:33 -0500


HI,

Bill Rea wrote abiut Ex 20.5-6:

> Now there appears to me to
> be no word in the Hebrew corresponding to generations, so expect they
> interpreted it from the form of the numbers.
>

The word in Hebrew for "generation" is dwr (daleth, holom, resh).
It occurs 167 times in the Hebrew text and, as far as I am aware,
there is no controversy about the meaning of this word. But you're
correct in noting that the word _dwr_ does not occur in Ex
20.5-6. However in Dt 7.9, which talks about the reward to those
who are loyal to Yahweh, the term thousand generation appears _
)lf dwr_ . Also Ps 105.8.

My Greek text has _geneas_ in Ex 20.5 but it is absent in 20.6 but
implied based on verse 5 (elipsis?). _Geneas_ can mean
_generation_ as well as _ race_ and _family_. In any case the
Greek translator understood Ex. 20.5-6 to refer to
generations---that is future time.

By the way, the term _third generation_, used with the word
_genea_ is found in the ancient Greek writing of Aeschylus where
it is refers to the length of retribution and destruction.

So it seems to me that the interpolation of _generation_ in Ex
20.5-6 is a reasonable interpretation.

irene riegner





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