Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>]

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