Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Bill,
     You write:
"This seems to me to be a much more faithful translation:

YLT
Jehovah [is] slow to anger, and of great kindness; bearing away iniquity and
transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on
sons, on a third [generation], and on a fourth; --

Am I correct in my reading of this verse that it asserts:

* God forgives freely
* But He doesn't always entirely suspend the consequences"

     John Piper gives a similar translation of these words (the version in
Exod 34:6-7) in "Prolegomena to Understanding Romans 9:14-15: An
Interpretation of Exod 33:19," JETS 22/3 [September 1979]: 203-216. He
argues that the usage is akin to use of the infinitive absolute in Judges
1:28: inf. abs. + negative L) + verb. There the construction means that
Israel did not entirely drive out the Canaanites. So here, God would not
leave entirely unpunished.

                                                Sincerely,
                                                Harold Holmyard