Jeremiah 20:6

20:6 You, Pashhur, and all your household ¹  will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’” ² 

Exodus 20:5

20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, ³  for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous ⁴  God, responding to ⁵  the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations ⁶  of those who reject me, ⁷ 

Numbers 16:27-33

16:27 So they got away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stationed themselves ⁸  in the entrances of their tents with their wives, their children, and their toddlers. 16:28 Then Moses said, “This is how ⁹  you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. ¹⁰  16:29 If these men die a natural death, ¹¹  or if they share the fate ¹²  of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. 16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ¹³  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ¹⁴  along with all that they have, and they ¹⁵  go down alive to the grave, ¹⁶  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

16:31 When he had finished ¹⁷  speaking ¹⁸  all these words, the ground that was under them split open, 16:32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. 16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

Joshua 7:24-25

7:24 Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan, son of Zerah, along with the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, daughters, ox, donkey, sheep, tent, and all that belonged to him and brought them up to the Valley of Disaster. ¹⁹  7:25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster ²⁰  on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you today!” All Israel stoned him to death. (They also stoned and burned the others.) ²¹ 

Joshua 7:2

7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho ²²  to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel ²³ ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.

Joshua 5:1

5:1 When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they ²⁴  crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites. ²⁵ 

Psalms 109:8-15

109:8 May his days be few! ²⁶ 

May another take his job! ²⁷ 

109:9 May his children ²⁸  be fatherless,

and his wife a widow!

109:10 May his children ²⁹  roam around begging,

asking for handouts as they leave their ruined home! ³⁰ 

109:11 May the creditor seize ³¹  all he owns!

May strangers loot his property! ³² 

109:12 May no one show him kindness! ³³ 

May no one have compassion ³⁴  on his fatherless children!

109:13 May his descendants ³⁵  be cut off! ³⁶ 

May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives! ³⁷ 

109:14 May his ancestors’ ³⁸  sins be remembered by the Lord!

May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ³⁹ 

109:15 May the Lord be constantly aware of them, ⁴⁰ 

and cut off the memory of his children ⁴¹  from the earth!

Isaiah 14:20

14:20 You will not be buried with them, ⁴² 

because you destroyed your land

and killed your people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never be mentioned again.

Isaiah 14:22

14:22 “I will rise up against them,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ⁴³ 

including the offspring she produces,” ⁴⁴ 

says the Lord.

Amos 7:17

7:17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets ⁴⁵ 

and your sons and daughters will die violently. ⁴⁶ 

Your land will be given to others ⁴⁷ 

and you will die in a foreign ⁴⁸  land.

Israel will certainly be carried into exile ⁴⁹  away from its land.’”

[20:6]  ¹ tn Heb “all who live in your house.” This included his family and his servants.

[20:6]  ² sn As a member of the priesthood and the protector of order in the temple, Pashhur was undoubtedly one of those who promulgated the deceptive belief that the Lord’s presence in the temple was a guarantee of Judah’s safety (cf. 7:4, 8). Judging from the fact that two other men held the same office after the leading men in the city were carried into exile in 597 b.c. (see Jer 29:25-26 and compare 29:1-2 for the date and 2 Kgs 24:12-16 for the facts), this prophecy was probably fulfilled in 597. For a similar kind of oracle of judgment see Amos 7:10-17.

[20:5]  ³ tn The combination of these two verbs customarily refers to the worship of pagan deities (e.g., Deut 17:3: 30:17; Jer 8:2; see J. J. Stamm and M. E. Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research [SBT], 86). The first verb is לאֹ־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה (lo’ tishtakhaveh), now to be classified as a hishtaphel imperfect from חָוָה (khavah; BDB 1005 s.v. שׁחה), “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” It is used of the true worship of God as well. The second verb is וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם (vÿlo’ to’ovdem). The two could be taken as a hendiadys: “you will not prostrate yourself to serve them.” In an interesting side comment U. Cassuto (Exodus, 242) offers an explanation of the spelling of the second verb: he suggests that it was spelled with the qamets khatuf vowel to show contempt for pagan worship, as if their conduct does not even warrant a correct spelling of the word “serve.” Gesenius says that the forms like this are anomalous, but he wonders if they were pointed as if the verb was a Hophal with the meaning “you shall not allow yourself to be brought to worship them” (GKC 161 §60.b). But this is unlikely.

[20:5]  ⁴ sn The word “jealous” is the same word often translated “zeal” or “zealous.” The word describes a passionate intensity to protect or defend something that is jeopardized. The word can also have the sense of “envy,” but in that case the object is out of bounds. God’s zeal or jealousy is to protect his people or his institutions or his honor. Yahweh’s honor is bound up with the life of his people.

[20:5]  ⁵ tn Verses 5 and 6 are very concise, and the word פָּקַד (paqad) is difficult to translate. Often rendered “visiting,” it might here be rendered “dealing with” in a negative sense or “punishing,” but it describes positive attention in 13:19. When used of God, it essentially means that God intervenes in the lives of people for blessing or for cursing. Some would simply translate the participle here as “punishing” the children for the sins of the fathers (cf. Lev 18:25; Isa 26:21; Jer 29:32; 36:31; Hos 1:4; Amos 3:2). That is workable, but may not say enough. The verse may indicate that those who hate Yahweh and do not keep his commandments will repeat the sins their fathers committed and suffer for them. Deut 24:16 says that individuals will die for their own sins and not their father’s sins (see also Deut 7:10 and Ezek 18). It may have more to do with patterns of sin being repeated from generation to generation; if the sin and the guilt were not fully developed in the one generation, then left unchecked they would develop and continue in the next. But it may also indicate that the effects of the sins of the fathers will be experienced in the following generations, especially in the case of Israel as a national entity (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 243). God is showing here that his ethical character is displayed in how he deals with sin and righteousness, all of which he describes as giving strong motivation for loyalty to him and for avoiding idolatry. There is a justice at work in the dealings of God that is not present in the pagan world.

[20:5]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word for “generations” is not found in v. 5 or 6. The numbers are short for a longer expression, which is understood as part of the description of the children already mentioned (see Deut 7:9, where “generation” [דּוֹר, dor] is present and more necessary, since “children” have not been mentioned).

[20:5]  ⁷ tn This is an important qualification to the principle. The word rendered “reject” is often translated “hate” and carries with it the idea of defiantly rejecting and opposing God and his word. Such people are doomed to carry on the sins of their ancestors and bear guilt with them.

[16:27]  ⁸ tn The verb נִצָּבִים (nitsavim) suggests a defiant stance, for the word is often used in the sense of taking a stand for or against something. It can also be somewhat neutral, having the sense of positioning oneself for a purpose.

[16:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “in this.”

[16:28]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text simply has כִּי־לֹא מִלִּבִּי (ki-lo’ millibbi, “for not from my heart”). The heart is the center of the will, the place decisions are made (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament). Moses is saying that the things he has done have not come “from the will of man” so to speak – and certainly not from some secret desire on his part to seize power.

[16:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “if like the death of every man they die.”

[16:29]  ¹² tn The noun is פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah, “appointment, visitation”). The expression refers to a natural death, parallel to the first expression.

[16:30]  ¹³ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ¹⁴ tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ¹⁵ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ¹⁶ tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.

[16:31]  ¹⁷ tn The initial temporal clause is standard: It begins with the temporal indicator “and it was,” followed here by the Piel infinitive construct with the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix. “And it happened when he finished.”

[16:31]  ¹⁸ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition lamed (ל) functions here as the direct object of the preceding infinitive. It tells what he finished.

[7:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Trouble” The name is “Achor” in Hebrew, which means “disaster” or “trouble” (also in v. 26).

[7:25]  ²⁰ tn Or “trouble.” The word is “achor” in Hebrew (also in the following clause).

[7:25]  ²¹ tc Heb “and they burned them with fire and they stoned them with stones.” These words are somewhat parenthetical in nature and are omitted in the LXX; they may represent a later scribal addition.

[7:2]  ²² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[7:2]  ²³ map For the location of Bethel see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[5:1]  ²⁴ tc Another textual tradition has, “while we crossed.”

[5:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “their heart[s] melted and there was no longer in them breathe because of the sons of Israel.”

[109:8]  ²⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms (except those with vav [ו] consecutive) in vv. 8-20 are taken as jussives of prayer. Note the distinct jussive forms used in vv. 12-13, 15, 19.

[109:8]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew noun פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah) can mean “charge” or “office,” though BDB 824 s.v. suggests that here it refers to his possessions.

[109:9]  ²⁸ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ²⁹ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and roaming, may his children roam and beg, and seek from their ruins.” Some, following the LXX, emend the term וְדָרְשׁוּ (vÿdoreshu, “and seek”) to יְגֹרְשׁוּ (yÿgoreshu; a Pual jussive, “may they be driven away” [see Job 30:5; cf. NIV, NRSV]), but דָּרַשׁ (darash) nicely parallels שִׁאֵלוּ (shi’elu, “and beg”) in the preceding line.

[109:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “lay snares for” (see Ps 38:12).

[109:11]  ³² tn Heb “the product of his labor.”

[109:12]  ³³ tn Heb “may there not be for him one who extends loyal love.”

[109:12]  ³⁴ tn Perhaps this refers to being generous (see Ps 37:21).

[109:13]  ³⁵ tn Or “offspring.”

[109:13]  ³⁶ sn On the expression cut off see Ps 37:28.

[109:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in another generation may their name be wiped out.”

[109:14]  ³⁸ tn Or “fathers’ sins.”

[109:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “not be wiped out.”

[109:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “may they [that is, the sins mentioned in v. 14] be before the Lord continually.”

[109:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.

[14:20]  ⁴² tn Heb “you will not be united with them in burial” (so NASB).

[14:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant” (ASV, NAB, and NRSV all similar).

[14:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “descendant and child.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in the city,” that is, “in public.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “will fall by the sword.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “will be divided up with a [surveyor’s] measuring line.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “[an] unclean”; or “[an] impure.” This fate would be especially humiliating for a priest, who was to distinguish between the ritually clean and unclean (see Lev 10:10).

[7:17]  ⁴⁹ tn See the note on the word “exile” in 5:5.