Genesis 15:16
Context15:16 In the fourth generation 1 your descendants 2 will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” 3
Zechariah 5:6-8
Context5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain 4 that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ 5 throughout all the earth.” 5:7 Then a round lead cover was raised up, revealing a woman sitting inside the basket. 5:8 He then said, “This woman represents wickedness,” and he pushed her down into the basket and placed the lead cover on top.
Matthew 23:32
Context23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors!
[15:16] 1 sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.
[15:16] 2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[15:16] 3 tn Heb “is not yet complete.”
[5:6] 4 tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.
[5:6] 5 tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.