Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Chris & Co.

I believe that you are quite correct that in Ex 34:7 God 
reserves this authority to punish later generations for the 
actions of earlier generation.  That is exactly what 
happens in both 1 Sam 15 and 2 Sam 21.  In both instances, 
it is God who initiates the actions.  In 1 Sam 15 God tells 
Samuel to tell Saul to attack and wipe-out the Amekelites.  
In normal war solders fight solders and non-compatants, 
like women, children, and animals are left alone.  However 
Samuel's command to Saul is extraordinary.  The command is 
to kill everyone and destroy everything.  The rationale for 
this extraordinary warfare is that it is punishment the 
actions Amelek two hundred years earlier.

So it is the same in 2 Sam 21.  Saul commits a crime, God 
brings a famine down on Isreal because the crime (causing 
much suffering on Isreal), David determines the cause of 
the famine, David kills Saul's two sons and five grandsons, 
the famine is lifted.  David acts at God's initative.

In nether case does Saul or David initiate this *attention* 
to later generations. 

Jack Tladatsi