Misunderstanding God

OK - so let's be totally negative. How do we escape from the thoughts of the past centuries (millennia?) about the character of God?

Bart Ehrman - entrepreneur, and Biblical Scholar, writes that "This God was indeed a God of wrath, not simply love. When people misbehaved, he punished them. Sometimes severely. Sometimes ruthlessly. We may not appreciate the picture, but you will find it both the both OT and NT." His context is here.

I have not translated the NT, so punish may well occur there, but it is not part of the character of God in the OT. It can be read in - but is it really there? Or are we reading the mind of the 16-17th century in the translation. 

In the NT, I see with a brief skim that punishment is rendered by two differing Greek words also translated as 'torment' or as 'vengeance', etc. It looks at first glance that the same problem occurs in the NT as in the OT: translators slip from a real character of God to an inferred one. They assume that if God is wrathful, or vengeful, that therefore God punishes, when the reality is that humans punish or that humans are tormented by their unconfessed lies and errors. It looks to me that in neither testament is the word punish required as a gloss for an action where God is the subject of the word. 

I have taken each root used for 'punish' to see and ask - does this really mean 'punish'?

I have written on this before, most recently earlier this year:

The 16th century translators had punishment on their minds a lot. The evidence is in the number of different Hebrew words (יסר נכה ענשׁ פקד רעע עוה) that are glossed as punish.

So I found 6 different roots that have been rendered as punish. I also note that in the version that everyone copies (KJV), Leviticus 26:41 elaborates iniquity into punishment and takes a whole interpretive phrase to render the one word. This is a case where the blood is not dry on the meat and the translator, that butcher of language, has failed to disentangle the ligaments when rendering the packaged gloss. The result reflects the bloody character of the translator rather than the character of God.

I did not set out to do this. I recall being surprised by the result as I combed out the impossible tangles of the KJV.

You can see each root and the glosses I chose for each in the concordance. The dominant glosses for the above list of roots are in this list with their counts for my translation. Punish as a gloss is never needed. It is always a slip into unnecessarily interpretive translation. (All translation is interpretation of the base data - but interpretation should not reduce the scope of what is said.)

• isr mentor (16), bewilder (3), chasten (62), warn (11), tutor (7)
• nch struck (331), stricken (8), strike (189), mill (1), gash (2)
• yvh wretch (2), perverse (16), perversity (2), pervert (2)
• ynw amerce (2), fine (10)
• pqd visitation (19), conscript (115), took/take census (10), officiate (11), entrust (38), officer (25), conscription (9), office (7), precept (25), visit (108)
• ryy evildoer (15), injure (11), deject (8), evil (654), get hurt (2), deal ill (1), dejection (3), hurt (47), worse (5), grimace (1), spite injury (1), injury (9), disservice (1), hurtful (18)

Conclusion, punish is an unnecessary gloss. It is never the dominant gloss in the KJV or those translations that copy it, and it is abundantly clear that these translators had punishment on their minds or they would not have given us that gloss for 6 different roots in the Hebrew.

I very much doubt that Bart Ehrman will notice this post. And I am not going to pay for the privilege of commenting on his post (sapphire membership or something). He is right in using punish to report what people thought and think today. I doubt he is right in assuming that Jesus thought this. Jesus expects to be tutored, chastened, warned, and taught. But Jesus seems to see clearly the love of God in the Old Testament. He accepts the role of son of God as one who is grieved by and absorbs rather than punishes evil. And so must we if indeed we are children of the same God.

Afterthought - God has visited and redeemed his people - do you think of this as positive or negative? pqd - visit - has overtones but punish is not one of them.  A visit from God is uniformly for good - not for evil. I wonder when we will learn to distinguish these things.

Let this mind be in you

 Punishment in a love song? Divine punishment in a love song? 

Let this mind be in you: God does not punish. It is not in the character of God to punish, to inflict pain on the creation. There is no word for punish in Hebrew. Let me make this clear. The gloss punish is frequently used in the King James translation in English and in other translations into other tongues. Punish is attributed to God in these versions of the Bible. These bibles propagate and teach a false theology.

I am not singing this truth to you. There is no music in this post. You can't hear the love if you think punishment. Humans punish. God does not. How often have I heard these excuses: "I'm doing this for your own good." Or "this hurts me more than it does you." What nonsense. Those sentences are also lies.

I'm not going to prove this or justify my words with a thousand quotes. Just think about it.

God is light. God is love. God is holy. There are many ways of pointing to God. 

You don't have to look very far on this blog to find what I really think about this error of attributing punishment to God. Just put punish into the search. Or link to this post from a few years ago. https://meafar.blogspot.com/2021/08/misunderstanding-god.html. 

Or press the link on my word map for the 77 posts substantiating this conclusion from my translating.

The difficulty of escaping a past bias

There is a commonplace in the theological world from the last 2000 years that God punishes. It is not true.

Can I be any more clear. It - is - not - true.

To attribute the role of punisher to God (whether by direct mistranslation or by inference in the mind of the reader) is a false understanding of the Scriptures in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The understanding is false.

God does not punish. We punish.

There are more ways to get 'God punishes' wrong as policy than there are to get 'we punish' wrong as policy.

Perhaps you didn't know that theology - what we think about God - can lead us to do things that we think God would do. Since by definition - God is the ultimate good. (If indeed we dare to define God.)

Don't get me wrong in these ways. There are consequences to what we do. And plenty of them are painful and deadly. If we rape the creation, we will suffer. If we fail to prepare for a pandemic, we will suffer. If we lie to each other, we will suffer. If we are lucky, we can attribute such suffering to a visitation from God. Perhaps we will revive. 

We know the difference between what is good and what is evil. Punishment and its motivation is evil. It cannot be attributed to God. It has no role in understanding either the First Testament and its theories of atonement nor has it any role in the Newer Testament and theories of how the work of Jesus works for those who believe. 

Prove me wrong. But I tell you. Punishment as theology is evil news, not good news.

I am a Christian and I value the teaching that I have derived from the New Testament. The apostle Paul in particular invites us by faith into suffering with God rather than suffering for our own ignorance and error. Jesus was and remains faithful in the message of the NT - but it is not an easy path to follow nor is it a slam dunk to understand. 

The first potential for our stumbling is our desire to control what we know and to control our relationships. We must have both self-control and cooperation amongst the elements of the created order. But we cannot achieve this with cheap answers to hard questions. We have to work it out and we have to correct the errors that are evident in our body politic.

You will know them by their fruits - says Jesus. Just look around: world wars, holocaust, famine, arms races, fear, oligarchies, inequities, and on and on. There is no lack of sin. 

Look around again, hard working farmers, health workers, hospitals, schools, scientists restoring and understanding life, from species restoration to waste management systems, and on and on, good human endeavors. There is no lack of care. 

Look around again: Consider the lilies - there is an immensity of words in the Tanakh (the Old Testament) about creation, and animals, and plant life, and beauty. It is not punishment. It is a prodigality of astonishing wealth. There is no lack of resources. 

How is it that there is inequity among us?

It has come to my attention that a blog I follow is writing about the character of God. The first two parts avoid the commonplace failures in translation. But parts 3 and 4 do not. Example in part 4 that God 'relents from punishing'. The Hebrew says No Such Thing. 

The translation of a word that signifies 'evil' as 'punishment' is sheer irresponsibility. God sighs over the evil that is evident to God in the human endeavors. It says nothing about God as the subject of 'punishment'. It will be misread if it is translated this way and the resulting idea about God in the mind of the reader will be distorted. This is the verse cited:

Rip your heart and not your garments and turn to Yahweh your God, for gracious and compassionate is he, slow to anger and abundant in kindness, and sighs over evil. (Joel 2:13).

I am grateful that the blog I noted (link here) is considering the character of God, but it is nearly impossible to consider it accurately without a concordant translation. I have pointed out on this blog that punish as a gloss is badly used in traditional translations at least as far back as the Vulgate and certainly in the mind of the 16th century in English tradition. Punishment was in vogue in the 16th century.

I have left a critical comment on Claude's blog. The teaching in the churches has to change. My comment is under moderation. Well, in my immoderate fashion, here it is:

Hi – thanks for your work on this formative verse. I want to object, however, to the use of the gloss punish for any root in the Hebrew language. The 16th century translators had punishment on their minds a lot. The evidence is for the number of different Hebrew words (יסר נכה ענשׁ פקד רעע עוה) that are glossed as punish. A review of these words will show that not one of them has punish as its dominant gloss. Sometimes the KJV translators even put in punishment as a word when there is no corresponding word at all in the Hebrew. (See Lev 26:41.)

I have written on this extensively having completed in the last 15 years a full translation of the Hebrew. Important though discipline and discipleship is, punishment is not part of it, rather it is governance. I do not deny pain or suffering or consequences but punishment is the imposition of a distorted human violent action that is not in the mind of God.

Just that one root pqd – primarily it has the sense of visit. Would we not want to be visited by God? Even if it required us to be corrected, chastened, struck, or even bewildered. Personally, I have been struck and I know the presence because of it. It is this way that I have suffered with God who grieves concerning our decisions that draw us away from such presence.

When I meditate on the character of God I am struck by the Psalms – 146 is among the best. 145 also includes Exodus 34:6 – I have prepared a short lecture and performance on the music of Psalm 145 that you can find here if you are interested. https://meafar.blogspot.com/2021/01/psalms-1458-14.html

What's going on with the database dump

If you are following this blog, you will note that I have been posting 3 or so posts a day to record my near final status of the list of all Hebrew words in the Hebrew Scriptures organized by Hebrew root (sometimes also called stem) and with full pointing and cantillation signs to allow comparison to the word as expressed by the left-to-right abbreviation for Hebrew known as SimHebrew. 

Why would I do this? First because I have here what I wanted 14 years ago when I began to study Hebrew and I think it is valuable to anyone who wants to learn Biblical Hebrew. It improves on my current published concordance in that it uses SimHebrew (making it easier to search) and it includes all the pointing and not just the consonants. It is more revealing of patterns of Hebrew thought than a traditional concordance or glossary. 

I am not selling this at the moment as an additional or replacement volume as a part of my 10-volume translation, alphabet book, concordance, and cantillation commentary (see the links on the right). I want it to be available. It is much easier to use than any other presentation of the words of Scripture that I have seen and it can almost be scanned like a book with the automated helps that are present through the web.

Since I think it is useful, I intend to schedule the rest of it over the next seven to ten weeks. (I think I will get it down to about 200 posts). They are all linked from here.

I have used a lot of books and tools and I know how difficult they are to learn from. Over 50 years ago a choir I sang with gifted me an analytical concordance. It seemed to me it must have all the answers. I think they hoped I would start questioning them and develop a better approach to learning. Indeed I must have done this to some extent. Digging in that concordance without the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was not a suitable way to begin. I remember how high the mountain seemed when I began to learn Hebrew with more discipline 35 years later(!) I can't find that concordance in my office. I think it was last used to make a small Christmas tree seem higher than it really was.

Such concordances and indeed all glossaries are not dictionaries. Such glossaries and concordances with glosses from traditional translations simply record what has been used as a gloss for such and such a word, given the prejudices of the time in which the work was done. Such historical records run the risk of short circuiting our learning, making us think we already know the answer. Yes, some use they are, but not ultimate. (says Yoda)

A good example of misleading information is in the Lambdin small glossary at the end of his introductory book. It's not his fault. He actually avoids the other 5 or 6 roots that are rendered as punish. But in the English-Hebrew appendix, he knows that people will look up punish and he lists yvn עון as punishment. Punishment is indeed the gloss used in Genesis 4:13 but it cannot agree with the gloss used in other places for this word form. The phrase should be translated as my iniquity is greater than I can bear. So yvni appears under yvn as follows in what I list in my concordance:

Root	Domain	Word	Count	Pointing	Gloss	Reference
yvn	Sin	yvoni	7	עֲוֺנִ֖י	my iniquity	Gen 4:13(6)
				עֲוֺֽנִי	my iniquity	Job 31:33(7)
				־עֲוֺ֫נִ֥י	my iniquity	Job 7:21(7)
				־עֲוֺנִֽי	my iniquity	Job 14:17(6)
				־עֲוֺנִ֤י	my iniquity	1Sa 20:1(12)
				־עֲוֺנִ֥י	my iniquity	Psa 38:19(2)
				־עֲוֺנִ֖י	my iniquity	1Kgs 17:18(13)

Nice and easy, always spelled the same, sung with variations depending on its place in the musical phrase. No need for the punish word at all, a word that is entirely out of place in the context of Scripture which in both Tanakh and the Newer Testament is good news, and not something to be feared. There is no Hebrew word that has punish as its dominant gloss. The use of punish is a product of tradition, and here tradition - going right back to the Vulgate - is simply wrong.

Title page of the
Hebrew Latin Concordance

What I have tried to do in my work is reason from patterns of word usage. I do have my glosses, but they differ sufficiently to raise questions rather than reinforce the decisions of past translations. I have also developed a categorization of the stems by semantic domain. This helps see when another gloss, a homonym, is needed for a root. yvn needs no variation, no English nor Latin synonyms. They explain nothing. All 231 instances in my translation render yvn as iniquity.

One tool I used that was really challenging is this Hebrew-Latin Concordance. (This also was a gift to me from Giddy Nashon of blessed memory, my first real Hebrew teacher.) It had the advantage that I could not instantly allow myself to think I knew any answer.

The traditional Latin for yvn

You clever ones who read fluently in Hebrew and Latin can examine the texts to the left and to the right. For me, I note that even the poena of the concordance requires a second word, poena peccati. Now I ask, Is punishment a reasonable gloss? 

By no means. It forces the reader into an interpretation of Cain's psychological state. He may well be considering the consequences of his iniquity. These are many more than the human thought that is expressed in punishment.The full set of the glosses and word forms for yvn can be found here. 

By the way, avn (aleph-vav-nun) and yvn (ayin-vav-nun)  have some relationship but should not be mixed up. The former is mischief, the latter iniquity. We might consider them equivalent, but mischief is more often inconvenience than sin. And avn also has the sense of virility. So I think that they are different. You can compare them: avn will be found here.

It would be great to have conversations over the sense and usage of these and other words. Comments are welcome.

A brief note on my recollections of reading in Hebrew and writing in English

What did I think I was doing? Learning a new tongue at age 60? I had played at Hebrew for many years. My discipline was surely lacking, but the work was needed in me, so I began. Now I am 73, barely a teenager. I have finished my translation of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.
As the reader and writer, I will say with the copyists, חזק

The Hebrew canon contains 305,368 words give or take a few, because I have joined some together, and separated some apart, and I have added a verse and adjusted a few words based on information from the Dead Sea Scrolls. But it is 99.9% The Leningrad Codex in 929 chapters and 23,196 verses + 1, the missing Nun verse in Psalm 145. My text came from tanach.us using the web-service that they support.

The English contains 12000 or so distinct English lemma forms, about three times the count of Hebrew stems. The number of words in the English is about 608,000, just under twice the Hebrew word count.

Now for the corrections. Now for the testing. Now to see if I can read it without the Hebrew and see if it still makes sense to me. And of course, adjust it where necessary. But what is necessary? That is one question among many.

Foreignness
English is my first language. Being Canadian, I also learned French from childhood. In school, I also learned Latin, but far from well. Hebrew is thoroughly foreign to me, but there are some connections. Like Latin, the word order is different from what the English take for granted. Like Latin too (and a bit in English and French), Hebrew has verb forms, the bane of those who learn by rote. I knew that I could not start with paradigms.

I knew from amo, amas, amat, that this was a very bad way of learning a language. So I ploughed straight in and just kept reading. Now if I look back at word forms, I can see where the conjugations are, and indeed some of them follow the rules I might have learned the old way. But many do not, particularly in the Psalms which is where I began.

Names
Names will remain a problem. Transcription is an issue. Even when I am 'finally' done with this Bob's Bible, I will probably not do the automated transcription of every name, though in principal, with the whole word by word translation in the database, it could be done. But the result might be worse for the reader than what I have now. As it stands, there are surprises in almost every chapter that has names. Somewhat randomly, I have translated the name, whether of a person or location. And most people don't read these anyway.

Wordplay
Having started with the Psalms, I was always looking for wordplay. I have not been disappointed anywhere. Wordplay is there in the acrostic poems, in alliteration and assonance, and, as it turns out, particularly in names. So in Micah 1:14, we can read, the houses of I-Will-Lie will be a lie for the kings of Israel. There are so many, you will need to read them and chuckle. Even in the long lists of names you will find some gems.

Concordance
I wanted to be consistent, but eventually, I was forced to break consistency because language doesn't work that way. I did, however, follow rules of concordance. For each Hebrew stem, I made and enforced a rule with software to not allow the same English lemma form to map back to two differing Hebrew stems. Of course, I was not totally successful.

Prepositions and other language elements were impossible to put into a one-to-many mapping. Some classes of common human actions, go, come, bring, and so on, were also too awkward to disallow a many-to-many mapping. But a very large proportion of words have succumbed to the rule of one-to-one, or one to many. I have never used many-to-one except where there is a legitimate homonym or a reason based on wordplay. And the exceptions are defined. My glossary is available and will be refined as time passes.

Music
The entire text is set to music. It is not possible to translate into English without losing information. But the language of music imposed on the text can be rendered into a Hebrew score without losing anything. The music is in the text itself as hand-signals. The music can be read by a computer program to produce the score, given a key. The key inferred by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura is a key that opens the lock of the accents in the text to both beauty and transparency. There is nothing close to it that does it better.

I have produced the scores with an automated Hebrew libretto underlay for every chapter. Bob's Bible is suitable for a libretto in English (most of the time). I have retained Hebrew word order wherever I could. Partly I did this for the music, but also to retain the foreignness of expression to a non-Hebrew speaker.

Theology
Here is trouble. How is the Bible used? It is often used to hurt others and to bring them into subservience, something done even by those who think they are well-meaning. I conclude that the Bible is not always used as it should be, to free the down-trodden, and to bind up wounds. But in theology, who is correct about God? And how do they justify themselves?

I know my God well enough to have taken some risks. There are many English words that I have not had to use at all in my translation. And some I have used but rarely. Like appease or propitiate or obey. I allowed appeasing of Yahweh only from a pagan speaker. I did use obey for a rare stem. It occurs only three times. And to follow my rules, I could not use it again for some other stem. Instead of obey, I have retained the Hebrew construction hear with the voice of the other. That kind of hearing leads to engagement rather than subservience. Our theology in words tends to lead to a visual understanding rather than relational through the ear.

I also had no occasion to use any of the following words: law, soul, loving-kindness, punish, atonement, repent, and dominion. There are probably more that I have not noticed. I do not feel poorer for my avoidance of these loaded words. I did not set out with this in mind, but in the act of imposing rules of concordance, these concepts just fell off the table entirely. I have noted particularly that punish is used for a half-dozen different stems in traditional translations based on the King James Version, and none of these stems has punish as its primary sense. The 17th century seems to have had punish in mind all the time. It is a human act to punish others. It is not a godly act.

Can you do theology without these words? I am quite sure you can. And it will be a more accurate view of God to the extent that God is given in this canonical text.

People write long polemical books and essays about this issue. All polemics miss the point. Words like inerrant, infallible, sola this, sola that, are distractions from our engagement with the Mystery. They are power plays. They are attempts at controlling what is not controllable by us.

The Scripture is rightly loved. It is like a beautiful musical instrument. To play on it requires good practice time. Neither the banging of children nor a perfection of technique will do on its own. Music is more subtle and not subject to our control. The wind blows where it pleases.

God is a musician, the artist inimitable, a scientist, one who tests all things. And, need I add, so should we be.

Teaching the next generation

 The human parents are responsible for teaching the instruction (Torah) to the generation to follow. No surprise here. If we are just a clever bootstrap of nature within the limited domain of space-time, then we seem to be very clever, foreseeing the future by knowing the riddles of the past and the need for a particular trajectory of care, that care in itself reflecting the character of the force that drives us forward - it is indeed forward in time and generation because though we can imagine backward (all the laws of science with the sign of time reversed) we cannot 'yet' go there.

Psalm 78 is riddle and parable, part of the metaphoric imagery in which we live. The first 8 verses specify the means of escape - a folly in God. Even the ancients knew that there was mystery at the heart of all knowledge. What is our folly (csl)? Tate like everyone else assume the summary of anger and wrath is punishment. Punish never occurs in the Psalm or anywhere else in the Hebrew Scripture. Consequences surely do, but whose responsibility is that? 

Does the chosen humanity know that our actions, our policies and their consequences, are not up to scratch? It seems that the natural solution is to retry the imagery in every generation. Did it work? We have had great progress and marvels of technology but have we learned to prepare for the unknown? to care for the poor and other unfortunates? Dickens had it right with his ghost of Christmas yet to come.

I think we are working on it. It's true to say that the poet attributes the consequences to the fury, anger, indignation, and wrath of Yahweh. These are all part of the domain of wrath right at the bottom of the page. I have been very careful not to overlap these many different words. With respect to the character of Yahweh, we should note also the attribution of grief (verse 58). For other uses, see cys. (Not the same word as in the famous triple in Isaiah 53. See klh, illness.)

I have also been careful not to use the gloss punish, because there is no root in Hebrew that has punish as a necessary gloss. The KJV translators used it for a half-dozen roots and even when there was no word at all in the text for it. (You can verify my analysis - the stems used by others for punish are all listed here. For the record, I came to this conclusion based on my experience of translating using contextual pattern matching. I did not set out with this particular issue in mind.)

	spr thlim		Book of Psalms
	yk		78
a	mwcil lasf. hazinh ymi torti. h'tu aozncm lamri-pi.	1	An insight of Asaph. Listen my people to my instruction. Bend your ears to the sayings of my mouth.
b	aptkh bmwl pi. abiyh kidot mni-qdm,	2	I will open my mouth in a parable. I will ferment riddles from of old,
g	awr wmynu vndym, vabotinu sipru-lnu.	3	which we have heard and known, and our ancestors recounted to us.
d	la nckd mbnihm ldor akron msprim thilot ihvh, vyzuzo vnplaotiv awr ywh.	4	We will not conceal from their children in the generation to follow, recounting the praises of Yahweh, and his strength and his wonders which he did.
h	viqm ydut biyqob vtorh wm biwral, awr xivvh at-abotinu, lhodiym lbnihm,	5	He raised a testimony in Jacob and he set up instruction in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors, to make known to their children,
v	lmyn iidyu dor akron bnim iivvldu, iqumu vispru lbnihm,	6	so that the generation to follow will know. The children to be born, will arise and recount to their children,
z	viwimu balohim cslm, vla iwcku mylli-al, umxvotiv inxoru,	7	so they might set up their folly in God, and not forget the prodigality of God, and observe his commandments,
k	vla ihiu cabotm dor sorr umorh, dor la-hcin libo, vla-namnh at-al ruko.	8	and not become like their ancestors, a rebellious and provocative generation, a generation not preparing its heart, and whose spirit did not believe God.
't	bni-apriim nowqi romi-qwt, hpcu biom qrb.	9	The children of Ephraim, equipped and ready with bow, changed in the day of close combat.
i	la wmru brit alohim, ubtorto mianu llct.	10	They did not keep the covenant of God, and in his instruction they would not walk.
ia	viwcku ylilotiv, vnplaotiv awr hram.	11	And they forgot his prodigality, and his wonders that he had showed them.
ib	ngd abotm ywh pla, barx mxriim wdh-xoyn.	12	In front of their ancestors he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
ig	bqy im viybirm, vixb-mim cmo-nd.	13	He split sea and made them cross over, and he made waters stand firm in a heap.
id	vinkm bynn iomm, vcl-hlilh baor aw.	14	And he guided them in a cloud by day, and all the night long in the light of fire.
'tv	ibqy xurim bmdbr, viwq cthomot rbh.	15	He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave drink as abundant abysses.
'tz	vioxia nozlim msly, viord cnhrot mim.	16	And he brought forth flows from a cliff, and made waters descend as rivers.
iz	viosipu yod lk'toa-lo, lmrot ylion bxiih.	17	But they added still sin against him, to provoke the Most High in the arid places.
ik	vinsu-al blbbm, lwaol-aocl lnpwm.	18	And they tempted God in their heart, by asking food for themselves.
i't	vidbru balohim. amru hiucl al, lyroç wulkn bmdbr?	19	And they spoke against God. They said, Is God able, to arrange a table in the wilderness?
c	hn hch-xur vizubu mim unklim iw'topu. hgm-lkm iucl tt? am-icin war lymo?	20	Hey! he struck a rock and out gushed water and the torrents overflowed. Is he even able to give bread? Or will he prepare meat for his people?
ca	lcn wmy ihvh vitybr vaw niwqh biyqob, vgm-af ylh biwral.	21	So Yahweh heard and he was furious, and fire was ignited in Jacob, and even anger ascended against Israel.
cb	ci la haminu balohim, vla b'tku biwuyto.	22	For they did not believe in God, and they did not trust in his salvation.
cg	vixv wkqim mmyl, vdlti wmiim ptk.	23	For he had commanded the skies from above, and the gateways of heaven he opened.
cd	vim'tr ylihm mn lacol, udgn-wmiim ntn lmo.	24	And he rained on them manna to eat, and the grain of heaven he gave to them.
ch	lkm abirim acl aiw. xidh wlk lhm lwoby.	25	The bread of the mighty each ate. Victuals he sent among them to satiation.
cv	isy qdim bwmiim, vinhg byuzo timn.	26	He sprung an east wind in the heavens, and drove a south wind in his strength.
cz	vim'tr ylihm cypr war, uckol imim yof cnf.	27	And he rained meat on them as dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas.
ck	vipl bqrb mknhu, sbib lmwcnotiv.	28	And he made it fall within their camp, surrounding their dwellings.
c't	viaclu viwbyu maod, vtavvtm ibia lhm.	29	And they ate and were sated utterly, and he let their desires come to them.
l	la-zru mtavvtm. yod aoclm bpihm,	30	They were not a stranger to their desires. While their food was in their mouths,
la	vaf alohim ylh bhm vihrog bmwmnihm, ubkuri iwral hcriy.	31	and the anger of God ascended in them, and slew among their stoutest, and the chosen of Israel were bowed down.
lb	bcl-zat k'tau-yod, vla-haminu bnplaotiv.	32	In all this they sinned, and still did not believe in his wonders.
lg	vicl-bhbl imihm, uwnotm bbhlh.	33	And he finished their days in futility, and their years in vexation.
ld	am-hrgm udrwuhu, vwbu vwikru-al.	34	When he slew them then they searched him out, and they turned and sought early for God.
lh	vizcru ci-alohim xurm, val ylion goalm.	35	And they remembered for God is their rock, and God the Most High their redeemer.
lv	viptuhu bpihm, ublwonm iczbu-lo.	36	But they seduced him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him.
lz	vlibm la-ncon yimo, vla namnu bbrito.	37	And their heart was not prepared from him, and they did not believe in his covenant.
lk	vhua rkum icpr yvon vla-iwkit, vhrbh lhwib apo, vla-iyir cl-kmto,	38	But he compassionate, he covered over iniquity and did not destroy, but many times his anger turned, and did not arouse all his heat,
l't	vizcor ci-bwr hmh, ruk holç vla iwub.	39	for he remembered that they are flesh, a walking wind which does not return.
m	cmh imruhu bmdbr, iyxibuhu biwimon.	40	How much they provoked him in the wilderness, and caused him pain in the wasteland.
ma	viwubu vinsu al, uqdow iwral htvu.	41	And they turned back and tempted God, and constrained the Holy One of Israel.
mb	la-zcru at-ido, iom awr-pdm mni-xr.	42	They did not remember even his hand, the day he ransomed them from trouble.
mg	awr-wm bmxriim aototiv, umoptiv bwdh-xoyn.	43	That he had set up in Egypt his signs, and his portents in the field of Zoan.
md	vihpoç ldm iaorihm, vnozlihm bl-iwtiun.	44	That he changed their canals to blood, so their flows they could not imbibe.
mh	iwlk bhm yrob viaclm, uxprdy vtwkitm.	45	He sent a swarm of flies at them and it ate them, and frogs and he destroyed them.
mv	viitn lksil ibulm, vigiym larbh.	46	And he gave to the caterpillar their produce, and their labour to a swarm.
mz	ihrog bbrd gpnm, vwqmotm bknml.	47	He slew their vines with hail, and their sycamore with sleet.
mk	visgr lbrd byirm, umqnihm lrwpim.	48	And he imprisoned their kine to the hail, and their acquisitions to the fire-brands.
m't	iwlk-bm kron apo ybrh vzym vxrh, mwlkt mlaci ryim.	49	He sent them his fierce anger, fury and indignation and trouble, by sending messengers of evil.
n	ipls ntib lapo. la-kwç mmvvt npwm, vkitm ldbr hsgir.	50	He leveled a pathway for his anger. He did not keep back their being from death, and he imprisoned their lives to the pestilence.
na	viç cl-bcor bmxriim, rawit aonim baohli-km.	51	And he struck all the firstborn in Egypt, head of the vigour in the tents of Ham.
nb	visy cxan ymo, vinhgm cydr bmdbr.	52	And he sprung his people like sheep, and drove them like a troop in the wilderness.
ng	vinkm lb'tk vla pkdu, vat-aoibihm cish him.	53	And he guided them in trust and they were not in dread, and their enemies the sea covered.
nd	vibiam al-gbul qodwo, hr-zh qnth imino.	54	And he conducted them to the border of his holiness, whose right hand acquired this hill.
nh	vigrw mpnihm goiim vipilm bkbl nklh, viwcn baohlihm wb'ti iwral.	55	And he expelled the nations before their faces, and let fall in pledge an inheritance, and made the sceptres of Israel dwell in their tents.
nv	vinsu vimru at-alohim ylion, vydotiv la wmru.	56	But they tempted and they provoked God Most High, and his testimonies they did not keep.
nz	viisogu vibgdu cabotm. nhpcu cqwt rmiih.	57	And they were spineless and acted treacherously like their ancestors. They were changed like an unready bow.
nk	vicyisuhu bbmotm, ubpsilihm iqniauhu.	58	And they grieved him with their high places, and with their graven images moved him to jealousy.
n't	wmy alohim vitybr, vimas maod biwral.	59	God heard and was furious, and he refused utterly in Israel.
s	vii'tow mwcn wilh, aohl wicn badm.	60	So he abandoned the dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among humanity.
sa	viitn lwbi yuzo, vtparto bid-xr.	61	And he gave his strength into captivity, and his adornment into the hand of trouble.
sb	visgr lkrb ymo, ubnklto htybr.	62	And he imprisoned with the sword his people, and with his inheritance he was furious.
sg	bkuriv aclh-aw, ubtulotiv la hullu.	63	His young men fire devoured, and his maidens were not praiseworthy.
sd	cohniv bkrb nplu, valmnotiv la tbcinh.	64	His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
sh	viiqx ciwn adonii, cgibor mtronn miin.	65	And my Lord awoke as from sleep, as valour shouting from wine.
sv	viç-xriv akor, krpt yolm ntn lmo.	66	And he struck his foes back, a reproach ever he gave them.
sz	vimas baohl iosf, ubwb't apriim la bkr.	67	And he refused the tent of Joseph, and the sceptre of Ephraim he did not choose.
sk	vibkr at-wb't ihudh, at-hr xion awr ahb.	68	But he chose the sceptre of Judah, the hill of Zion which he loved.
s't	viibn cmo-rmim mqdwo, carx isdh lyolm.	69	And he built as exalted, his sanctuary, as the earth he founded forever.
y	vibkr bdvid ybdo, viiqkhu mmclaot xan.	70	And he chose in David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
ya	makr ylot hbiao, lryot biyqob ymo, ubiwral nklto.	71	From behind those giving suck he conducted him, to shepherd in Jacob his people, and in Israel his inheritance.
yb	virym ctom lbbo, ubtbunot cpiv inkm.	72	And he shepherded them as the completeness of his heart, and in the discernments of his open palms he guided them.

The character of the protagonist of Tanach

One picks and chooses which descriptions of the living God one decides to emphasize when doing a 'theology'. I have just noted a brief return to considering Jesus last week - have a look. And now I will concentrate on what I see concerning ihvh. I think it may turn out to be both interesting and unexpected.

My foundational verses are these two. You can see that face and presence are the same root. The English corresponds to the bolded pn in the Hebrew. My point here is not to repeat the sounds but to show the immediacy and tangibility of 'presence'. In most places I want to show repetition, but here a slightly different view of our relationship to this 'living God'. (See previous post).

wmot lg	Exodus 33
i't viamr ani aybir cl-'tubi yl-pniç vqrati bwm ihvh lpniç vknoti at-awr akon vrikmti at-awr arkm	19 And he said, I myself will make all my good pass over your face, and I will call in the name of Yahweh in your presence. And I am gracious with whom I will be gracious, and I have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
wmot ld	Exodus 34
v viybor ihvh yl-pniv viqra ihvh ihvh al rkum vknun arç apiim vrb-ksd vamt	6 And Yahweh, passed over before him, and he called, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth,

These two verses are alluded to by a host of other verses in the Scripture. I think we may conclude that the Old Testament, just from this starting point, testifies to a character of God that is meant to be present to others in us, teaching us maturity (and thus overcoming our tendencies to 'me first'). Maturity is a word I might return to. It is glossed largely as reward, recompense, but also wean, grow (acrostic necessity), mature. Detail here of course.

Here are the other references: First to gracious preceded by compassionate. al rkum vknun. If you look at knn in the glossary and scan for lag = rkm, there are only two additional. Look the other way around for eight more. And slow to anger (ap preceded by arc) raises 16 more verses that allude to Exodus 34:6. I could stop here with laying out these verses. You can find them all easily in the concordance.

So I will move on to the explicit statements of the character of the living God in the Psalms. You know my favorite section, Psalms 146, verse 6 and following.  Can you read it?

This section speaks of 

ihvh

yowh wmiim varx at-him vat-cl-awr-bm 

hwomr amt lyolm

yowh mwp't lywuqim

notn lkm lrybim 

ihvh mtir asurim

ihvh poqk yivvrim

ihvh zoqf cpupim 

ihvh aohb xdiqim

ihvh womr at-grim

itom valmnh iyodd 

vdrç rwyim iyvvt

Here as usual, the phrasing illustrates the compactness of the Hebrew. You can find early posts on Psalms 146 here and here. They do have a version of my translation. I am just learning to read SimHebrew too.

Do the stories of Jesus reflect the character of the living God of the Old Testament? They do. Why is the general presumption different? Because what we also hear and see in the OT are the violent actions of many peoples and the interpretations of the consequences.

One example: Cain murders his brother, and then most translations into English have Cain say: My punishment is greater than I can bear. If Cain is punished, who is punishing him? Implied answer, God. 

But there is no word for punish in the Biblical Hebrew of the OT. There are a half-dozen words that translators have glossed as punish. But they have also glossed them as other English words as well, in every case, more often than they used punish. In this case for Cain the word is yvn. If you look, you will see that I always translate yvn as iniquity. (Maybe) Cain perceives punishment as the consequence of his iniquity. But it is just plain wrong to translate it as punishment. And there are 50 different translations that copied the King James translation and therefore got this wrong again. And therefore they get the character of God wrong again. And they can't blame it on the Vulgate: Major est iniquitas mea, quam ut veniam merear. Or the old Greek.

Of course Cain can't bear his iniquity. Who will? Well, maybe we will together. Following the character of God will be costly.

Genesis 50

For the record, there is no punishment in Bob's Bible. I only just noted this. My bias is clear. פקד is never translated as punish as it frequently is in the KJV. Nor do I use this word for any of the other roots that it is used for like יסר or נכר or ענשׁ or עוה or רעע. Now I ask you, did that generation have punishment on the brain? How can you allow 6 unrelated stems to converge on the word punish?

No wonder the Christian world is distorted by the notion of penal substitution.

No soul, no repentance, no punishment in Bob's Bible. It's not that I know anything, but when I read, I do not write what I know is undecidable by the translator. 

• No soul because soul, lovely though the word is, it is not a bodiless substance that lives on after death. The problem with this Greek idea is the implied linearity of time. It also denies the body. It is heresy. [i.e. it is a choice that I don't choose.]
• No repentance, because the word, important though it is, has come to mean a psychological torture chamber. 
• No punishment, because important though discipline and discipleship is, punishment is not part of it, rather it is governance. I do not deny pain or suffering or consequences but punishment is the imposition of a distorted human violent action that is not in the mind of God.

I wonder how many other words I have failed to use. They uncover my assumptions better than the words I have used.

Here are my glosses so far for the stems (aka roots) above which KJV and others butcher as punish, (excluding רעע which we explored here)

יסר bewilderment(1), chasten(9), chastened(6), chastening(26), chastens(5), mentor(2), mentored(3), mentoring(7), tutored(1), warn(2), warned(1), warning(3)
נכה Neko(5), stricken(4), strike(52), striker(1), strikes(10), striking(5), struck(145)
עדה Adah(9), assembly(77), deck(1), decked(3), decks(1), given testimony(1), menstrual(1), near testimonies(1), testimonies(33), testimony(38)
ענשׁ amerced(1), fine(1), fined(2)
פקד conscript(1), conscripted(4), conscription(4), entrust(3), entrusted(17), given visitation rights(1), make officiate(1), make visit(3), office(1), officer(4), officers(4), offices(1), officials(2), officiating(2), precepts(24), visit(38), visitation(6), visited(12), visiting(8), visits(1)

Now for a change of pace, would you like to have been visited by God, as Joseph notes will happen to his brothers? (Note the anticipation of Peter Rabbit in this text.)

Genesis 50		Fn		Min	Max	Syll
וַיִּפֹּ֥ל יוֹסֵ֖ף עַל־פְּנֵ֣י אָבִ֑יו וַיֵּ֥בְךְּ עָלָ֖יו וַיִּשַּׁק־לֽוֹ	1		And Joseph fell in the presence of his father, and wept over him, and kissed him.	3e	4B	10 9
וַיְצַ֨ו יוֹסֵ֤ף אֶת־עֲבָדָיו֙ אֶת־הָרֹ֣פְאִ֔ים לַחֲנֹ֖ט אֶת־אָבִ֑יו וַיַּחַנְט֥וּ הָרֹפְאִ֖ים אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל	2		And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.	3e	4C	18 11
וַיִּמְלְאוּ־לוֹ֙ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם כִּ֛י כֵּ֥ן יִמְלְא֖וּ יְמֵ֣י הַחֲנֻטִ֑ים וַיִּבְכּ֥וּ אֹת֛וֹ מִצְרַ֖יִם שִׁבְעִ֥ים יֽוֹם	3		And they fulfilled for him forty days, for so are fulfilled the days of embalming, and Egypt wept for him seventy days.	3d	4B	19 10
וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ֙ יְמֵ֣י בְכִית֔וֹ וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר יוֹסֵ֔ף אֶל־בֵּ֥ית פַּרְעֹ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר אִם־נָ֨א מָצָ֤אתִי חֵן֙ בְּעֵ֣ינֵיכֶ֔ם דַּבְּרוּ־נָ֕א בְּאָזְנֵ֥י פַרְעֹ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר	4		When the days of his weeping were passed, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, If, please, I have found grace in your sight, speak please in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,	3e	4C	20 19
אָבִ֞י הִשְׁבִּיעַ֣נִי לֵאמֹ֗ר הִנֵּ֣ה אָנֹכִי֮ מֵת֒ בְּקִבְרִ֗י אֲשֶׁ֨ר כָּרִ֤יתִי לִי֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן שָׁ֖מָּה תִּקְבְּרֵ֑נִי וְעַתָּ֗ה אֶֽעֱלֶה־נָּ֛א וְאֶקְבְּרָ֥ה אֶת־אָבִ֖י וְאָשֽׁוּבָה	5		My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I am to die. In my tomb that I have dug for me in the land of Canaan, there you will entomb me. So now let me go up please, and entomb my father and I will return.	3d	4C	35 18
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר פַּרְעֹ֑ה עֲלֵ֛ה וּקְבֹ֥ר אֶת־אָבִ֖יךָ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר הִשְׁבִּיעֶֽךָ	6		And Pharaoh said, Go up and entomb your father, as he made you swear.	3d	4A	5 15
וַיַּ֥עַל יוֹסֵ֖ף לִקְבֹּ֣ר אֶת־אָבִ֑יו וַיַּֽעֲל֨וּ אִתּ֜וֹ כָּל־עַבְדֵ֤י פַרְעֹה֙ זִקְנֵ֣י בֵית֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל זִקְנֵ֥י אֶֽרֶץ־מִצְרָֽיִם	7		And Joseph went up to entomb his father. And went up with him all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,	3e	4C	10 24
וְכֹל֙ בֵּ֣ית יוֹסֵ֔ף וְאֶחָ֖יו וּבֵ֣ית אָבִ֑יו רַ֗ק טַפָּם֙ וְצֹאנָ֣ם וּבְקָרָ֔ם עָזְב֖וּ בְּאֶ֥רֶץ גֹּֽשֶׁן	8		And all the house of Joseph, and his brothers, and the house of his father, but their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left behind in the land Goshen.	3e	4B	12 16
וַיַּ֣עַל עִמּ֔וֹ גַּם־רֶ֖כֶב גַּם־פָּרָשִׁ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֖ה כָּבֵ֥ד מְאֹֽד	9		And went up with him both chariot and cavalry, so the camp was very glorious.	3e	4B	12 10
וַיָּבֹ֜אוּ עַד־גֹּ֣רֶן הָאָטָ֗ד אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּעֵ֣בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן וַיִּ֨סְפְּדוּ־שָׁ֔ם מִסְפֵּ֛ד גָּד֥וֹל וְכָבֵ֖ד מְאֹ֑ד וַיַּ֧עַשׂ לְאָבִ֛יו אֵ֖בֶל שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים	10		And they came to the threshing-floor of the Brierpatch that was across the Jordan, and wailed there a great wailing, and very glorious, and he made lament for his father seven days.	3c	4B	31 12
וַיַּ֡רְא יוֹשֵׁב֩ הָאָ֨רֶץ הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֜י אֶת־הָאֵ֗בֶל בְּגֹ֙רֶן֙ הָֽאָטָ֔ד וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֵֽבֶל־כָּבֵ֥ד זֶ֖ה לְמִצְרָ֑יִם עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ אָבֵ֣ל מִצְרַ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּעֵ֥בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּֽן	11		And the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the lament at the threshing-floor of the Brierpatch, and they said, A glorious lament this is for Egypt. Therefore he called its name, Lament of Egypt, that is across the Jordan.	3e	4C	33 18
וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ בָנָ֖יו ל֑וֹ כֵּ֖ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽם	12		And his children did for him, rightly as he commanded them.	3e	4A	7 6
וַיִּשְׂא֨וּ אֹת֤וֹ בָנָיו֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיִּקְבְּר֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ בִּמְעָרַ֖ת שְׂדֵ֣ה הַמַּכְפֵּלָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר קָנָה֩ אַבְרָהָ֨ם אֶת־הַשָּׂדֶ֜ה לַאֲחֻזַּת־קֶ֗בֶר מֵאֵ֛ת עֶפְרֹ֥ן הַחִתִּ֖י עַל־פְּנֵ֥י מַמְרֵֽא	13		And his children bore him toward the land of Canaan, and they entombed him in the cave of the field of the Makpelah, that Abraham purchased with the field, to hold fast as a tomb, from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre.	3d	4C	27 29
וַיָּ֨שָׁב יוֹסֵ֤ף מִצְרַ֙יְמָה֙ ה֣וּא וְאֶחָ֔יו וְכָל־הָעֹלִ֥ים אִתּ֖וֹ לִקְבֹּ֣ר אֶת־אָבִ֑יו אַחֲרֵ֖י קָבְר֥וֹ אֶת־אָבִֽיו	14		And Joseph returned toward Egypt, he and his brothers and all those who went up with him to entomb his father, after they had entombed his father.	3e	4C	24 8
וַיִּרְא֤וּ אֲחֵֽי־יוֹסֵף֙ כִּי־מֵ֣ת אֲבִיהֶ֔ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ ל֥וּ יִשְׂטְמֵ֖נוּ יוֹסֵ֑ף וְהָשֵׁ֤ב יָשִׁיב֙ לָ֔נוּ אֵ֚ת כָּל־הָ֣רָעָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר גָּמַ֖לְנוּ אֹתֽוֹ	15		And the brothers of Joseph saw that their father had died, and they said, Would not Joseph oppose us? And to get back, he will return to us all the evil with which we rewarded him.	3e	4C	21 19
וַיְצַוּ֕וּ אֶל־יוֹסֵ֖ף לֵאמֹ֑ר אָבִ֣יךָ צִוָּ֔ה לִפְנֵ֥י מוֹת֖וֹ לֵאמֹֽר	16		And they gave command to Joseph, saying, Your father commanded in the face of his death, saying,	3e	4B	8 11
כֹּֽה־תֹאמְר֣וּ לְיוֹסֵ֗ף אָ֣נָּ֡א שָׂ֣א נָ֠א פֶּ֣שַׁע אַחֶ֤יךָ וְחַטָּאתָם֙ כִּי־רָעָ֣ה גְמָל֔וּךָ וְעַתָּה֙ שָׂ֣א נָ֔א לְפֶ֥שַׁע עַבְדֵ֖י אֱלֹהֵ֣י אָבִ֑יךָ וַיֵּ֥בְךְּ יוֹסֵ֖ף בְּדַבְּרָ֥ם אֵלָֽיו	17		Thus you will say to Joseph, Beseeching, lift up, please, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they recompensed you with evil. So now, lift up, please, of the transgression of the servants of the God of your ancestors. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.	3e	4C	41 10
וַיֵּלְכוּ֙ גַּם־אֶחָ֔יו וַֽיִּפְּל֖וּ לְפָנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ הִנֶּ֥נּֽוּ לְךָ֖ לַעֲבָדִֽים	18		And his kin went also and fell before him, and they said, Behold us, yours, as servants.	3e	4B	12 12
וַיֹּ֧אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֛ם יוֹסֵ֖ף אַל־תִּירָ֑אוּ כִּ֛י הֲתַ֥חַת אֱלֹהִ֖ים אָֽנִי	19		And Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the guise of God?	3c	4A	12 9
וְאַתֶּ֕ם חֲשַׁבְתֶּ֥ם עָלַ֖י רָעָ֑ה אֱלֹהִים֙ חֲשָׁבָ֣הּ לְטֹבָ֔ה לְמַ֗עַן עֲשֹׂ֛ה כַּיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּ֖ה לְהַחֲיֹ֥ת עַם־רָֽב	20		Though yourselves, you devised for me evil, God devised it for good, so as to do as on this day to keep alive an abundant people.	3d	4B	10 24
וְעַתָּה֙ אַל־תִּירָ֔אוּ אָנֹכִ֛י אֲכַלְכֵּ֥ל אֶתְכֶ֖ם וְאֶֽת־טַפְּכֶ֑ם וַיְנַחֵ֣ם אוֹתָ֔ם וַיְדַבֵּ֖ר עַל־לִבָּֽם	21		So now, do not fear. I myself will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke concerning their heart.	3d	4B	19 11
וַיֵּ֤שֶׁב יוֹסֵף֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם ה֖וּא וּבֵ֣ית אָבִ֑יו וַיְחִ֣י יוֹסֵ֔ף מֵאָ֥ה וָעֶ֖שֶׂר שָׁנִֽים	22		And Joseph persisted in Egypt, he and the house of his father, and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.	3e	4C	13 11
וַיַּ֤רְא יוֹסֵף֙ לְאֶפְרַ֔יִם בְּנֵ֖י שִׁלֵּשִׁ֑ים גַּ֗ם בְּנֵ֤י מָכִיר֙ בֶּן־מְנַשֶּׁ֔ה יֻלְּד֖וּ עַל־בִּרְכֵּ֥י יוֹסֵֽף	23		And Joseph saw Ephraim's great grand children. Even the children of Makir, child of Manasseh, were toddlers on the knees of Joseph.	3e	4C	12 16
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יוֹסֵף֙ אֶל־אֶחָ֔יו אָנֹכִ֖י מֵ֑ת וֵֽאלֹהִ֞ים פָּקֹ֧ד יִפְקֹ֣ד אֶתְכֶ֗ם וְהֶעֱלָ֤ה אֶתְכֶם֙ מִן־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֔את אֶל־הָאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֛ע לְאַבְרָהָ֥ם לְיִצְחָ֖ק וּֽלְיַעֲקֹֽב	24		And Joseph said to his brothers, I am to die, but God visiting, will visit you, to bring you up from this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Yitschaq, and to Jacob.	3c	4C	12 40
וַיַּשְׁבַּ֣ע יוֹסֵ֔ף אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר פָּקֹ֨ד יִפְקֹ֤ד אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶתְכֶ֔ם וְהַעֲלִתֶ֥ם אֶת־עַצְמֹתַ֖י מִזֶּֽה	25		And Joseph made the children of Israel swear, saying, Visiting, God will visit you, and you will bring up my bones from here.	3e	4C	13 20
וַיָּ֣מָת יוֹסֵ֔ף בֶּן־מֵאָ֥ה וָעֶ֖שֶׂר שָׁנִ֑ים וַיַּחַנְט֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ וַיִּ֥ישֶׂם בָּאָר֖וֹן בְּמִצְרָֽיִם	26		And Joseph died, a child of a hundred and ten years, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.	3e	4B	13 16

Word studies related to correction and other critical concepts

 Do we need correction? Do we need to work in a right relationship with others and with the resources that we are given? The answer to such a closed question appears to be yes. It is in the character of the foundational texts of our tradition 

• that we avoid superstition, believing things that are without foundation, 
• that we do mercy, and keep to regulations that are helpful, 
• that we avoid a certain kind of emptiness that is destructive, 
• that we allow ourselves time to reflect, 
• that we give due glory to our ancestors, 
• that we help each other to avoid deadly violence to others, 
• that we deal with our tendency to gratify ourselves at others expense, 
• whether this be in matters of sex, 
• or material possessions, 
• or lies, whether convenient or deliberate, 
• and that we be content with our lot in the midst of our friends.

You will surmise where I got this paraphrase from. And that it is largely a set of negatives - though we are not without help.

In considering the character of God and the issue of punishment, (see my prior post), we see what looks like the threat of visitation in this passage below (verse 5). This third and fourth motif is evident in several verses of Torah (see the concordance under four, rby look for ribyim). It is part of the character of God. Is it punishment? It is not. It is a straightforward statement of the intergenerational consequences of evil. 

In the wake of colonialism, in the treatment of slaves, in the conquest of territories, it is just plain obvious to anyone who has lived long enough that such violence has repercussions particularly for the victims (who indeed may not hate God). Such actions hound us today in race relations particularly, us and our children. And it feels like the threat applies through 40 rather than merely 4 generations. But that's because we never seem to learn!

Notice that the word here is visit pqd. If you want to review the error of assigning the gloss punish to any of the roots in the Hebrew Bible, check out these ones too: isr nch ryy ynw yvh where punish is a common gloss. (I had a mistake in this list, ydh instead of yvh and here are two places where the KJV inserts punish with no underlying word, Amos 1:6 (etc), Eze 14:10, Job 31:3, Lam 3:39, 4:6 - it's hard to search for this kind of nonsense.)

Here are the first verses of Exodus 20 in my translation. You will see how this expands on the third and fourth generation motif implied in the Psalms and the Prophets where Exodus 34:6 is frequently alluded to (As Jean Sharp correctly points out).

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֵ֛ת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לֵאמֹֽר ס	a vidbr alohim at cl-hdbrim halh lamor s	1 And God spoke all these words, saying, S
אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִֽ֑ים	b anoci ihvh alohiç awr hoxatiç marx mxriim mbit ybdim	2 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude.
לֹֽ֣א יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ֛֩ אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ	g la ihih-lç alohim akrim yl-pnii	3 Not it is for you: other gods over my presence.
לֹֽ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֡֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣֙יִם֙ ׀ מִמַּ֡֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר֩ בָּאָ֖֨רֶץ מִתַָּ֑֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בַּמַּ֖֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֥֣חַת לָאָֽ֗רֶץ	d la tywh-lç psl vcl-tmunh awr bwmiim mmyl vawr barx mtkt vawr bmim mtkt larx	4 You will not make for yourself a graven image or any similitude that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth.
לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶ֥֣ה לָהֶ֖ם֮ וְלֹ֣א תָעָבְדֵ֑ם֒ כִּ֣י אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵד עֲוֺ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑י	h la-twtkvvh lhm vla toybdm ci anoci ihvh alohiç al qna poqd yvon abot yl-bnim yl-wilwim vyl-ribyim lwonaii	5 You will not worship them and you will not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of forebears on children over three and over four generations to those who hate me.
וְעֹ֥֤שֶׂה חֶ֖֙סֶד֙ לַאֲלָפִ֑֔ים לְאֹהֲבַ֖י וּלְשֹׁמְרֵ֥י מִצְוֺתָֽי ס	v vyowh ksd lalpim laohbii ulwomri mxvotii s	6 And doing mercy for thousands, who love me and who keep my commandments. S
לֹ֥א תִשָּׂ֛א אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לַשָּׁ֑וְא כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יְנַקֶּה֙ יְהוָ֔ה אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂ֥א אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ לַשָּֽׁוְא פ	z la tiwa at-wm-ihvh alohiç lwva ci la inqh ihvh at awr-iiwa at-wmo lwva	7 You will not lift up the name of Yahweh your God to vanity, for Yahweh will not hold innocent who lifts up his name to vanity. P
זָכ֛וֹר֩ אֶת־י֥֨וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖֜ת לְקַדְּשֽׁ֗וֹ	k zcor at-iom hwbt lqdwo	8 Remember the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it.
שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒	't wwt imim tybod vywit cl-mlactç	9 Six days you will serve and do all your affairs,
וְי֙וֹם֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔֜י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֗יךָ לֹֽ֣א־תַעֲשֶׂ֣֨ה כָל־מְלָאכָ֡֜ה אַתָּ֣ה ׀ וּבִנְךָֽ֣־וּ֠בִתֶּ֗ךָ עַבְדְּךָ֤֨ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ֜֙ וּבְהֶמְתֶּ֔֗ךָ וְגֵרְךָ֖֙ אֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽ֔יךָ	i viom hwbiyi wbt lihvh alohiç la-tywh cl-mlach ath ubnç-ubtç ybdç vamtç ubhmtç vgrç awr bwyriç	10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your God. You will not do any trade, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and your cattle and your guest that is in your gates.
כִּ֣י שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים֩ עָשָׂ֨ה יְהוָ֜ה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֔ם וַיָּ֖נַח בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֑י עַל־כֵּ֗ן בֵּרַ֧ךְ יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־י֥וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ ס	ia ci wwt-imim ywh ihvh at-hwmiim vat-harx at-him vat-cl-awr-bm vink biom hwbiyi yl-cn birç ihvh at-iom hwbt viqdwhu s	11 For six days Yahweh constructed the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it. S
כַּבֵּ֥ד אֶת־אָבִ֖יךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּ֑ךָ לְמַ֙עַן֙ יַאֲרִכ֣וּן יָמֶ֔יךָ עַ֚ל הָאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ ס	ib cbd at-abiç vat-aimç lmyn iaricun imiç yl hadmh awr-ihvh alohiç notn lç s	12 Glorify your father and your mother, so that prolonged are your days on the ground that Yahweh your God gives to you. S
לֹ֥֖א תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח ס	ig la trxk s	13 You will not murder. S
לֹ֣֖א תִּֿנְאָֽ֑ף ס	id la tnaf s	14 You will not commit adultery. S
לֹ֣֖א תִּֿגְנֹֽ֔ב ס	'tv la tgnob s	15 You will not steal. S
לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶ֥ה בְרֵעֲךָ֖ עֵ֥ד שָֽׁקֶר ס	'tz la-tynh briyç yd wqr s	16 You will not inflict false witness against your associate. S
לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד בֵּ֣ית רֵעֶ֑ךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹ֞ד אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֶ֗ךָ וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ֙ וְשׁוֹר֣וֹ וַחֲמֹר֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְרֵעֶֽךָ פ	iz la tkmod bit riyç la-tkmod awt riyç vybdo vamto vworo vkmoro vcol awr lriyç	17 You will not covet the house of your friend, nor will you covet the wife of your friend or manservant or maidservant or bull or ass or anything that is your friend's. P
וְכָל־הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹ֜ת וְאֶת־הַלַּפִּידִ֗ם וְאֵת֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר וְאֶת־הָהָ֖ר עָשֵׁ֑ן וַיַּ֤רְא הָעָם֙ וַיָּנֻ֔עוּ וַיַּֽעַמְד֖וּ מֵֽרָחֹֽק	ik vcl-hym roaim at-hqolot vat-hlpidim vat qol hwopr vat-hhr ywn vira hym vinuyu viymdu mrkoq	18 And all the people saw the rumblings and the torches and the voice of the shophar and the mountain smoking, and the people saw and wavered to and fro and they stood distant.