What Does Numbers 14:18 Mean?
The LORD is slow to flare, and great in faithful love, lifting crookedness and rebellion, and will by no means leave the guilty clean; visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.THE KEY
The hidden hinge is that forgiveness is pictured as bearing wrongdoing away, while the same sentence refuses to call guilt cleared.
THE MEANING
You encounter a God slow to flare and rich in faithful love, who releases crookedness and rebellion. The verse also says God does not clear the guilty and visits fathers’ crookedness upon their children through the third and fourth generation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that forgiveness means guilt is cleared and its reach stops with the offender: the verse holds release and generational visitation together.
THE ROOT
נֹשֵׂא
nōśēʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifting” in this verse is nōśēʾ. The verb rendered “forgiving” comes from a root meaning to lift, carry, or bear; it can picture crookedness being carried away. The verse then separately says guilt is not cleared, holding release and accountability together.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Burden; load.
מַשָּׂא
A burden is something carried, giving the verse’s language of forgiveness the image of bearing crookedness.
nasi: Leader; prince, literally one elevated.
נָשִׂיא
This form shows the root’s range of bearing and lifting; here that root image illuminates forgiveness as release.
נַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה
naqqeh lo yenaqqeh
GROWS FROM
נקה
To be clean or clear; to acquit or leave unpunished.
“leave the guilty clean” in this verse is naqqeh lo yenaqqeh. The Hebrew repeats the root for clearing, “clearing, he will not clear”, as an emphatic refusal to acquit. Forgiveness here is distinct from declaring the guilty innocent.
ALSO GROWS
naqiy: Innocent; guiltless.
נָקִי
The related word for an innocent person shows what this verse refuses to declare about the guilty.
niqqayon: Cleanness; innocence.
נִקָּיוֹן
This noun names the state of being clear or innocent, sharpening the distinction between release and acquittal.
פֹּקֵד
poqed
GROWS FROM
פקד
To attend to, take account of, appoint, or visit.
“visiting” in this verse is poqed. The root carries the sense of attending to or taking account. Here the verse names crookedness as what is visited, and expressly follows its reach through the third and fourth generation.
ALSO GROWS
pequddah: Appointment; charge; visitation.
פְּקֻדָּה
This form makes the root’s sense of appointed attention visible in the verse’s language of visitation.
paqīd: Official; overseer.
פָּקִיד
An overseer is one appointed to attend to a charge, echoing the root’s sense of directed attention.
THE PATTERN
Divine patience and faithful love release wrongdoing while refusing to erase guilt or its reach.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,The LORD is slow to flare, and great in strength, and will by no means clear the wicked. The LORD walks his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?THE THREAD
Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.The same roots for bearing wrongdoing, clearing the guilty, and visiting iniquity recur together. Their repeated wording holds release beside guilt and its generational reach.
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