and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Parallel Translations
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and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
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and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Exodus 20:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
- John 14:21 One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
- 1 John 5:3 For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- Jeremiah 32:39-40 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
- Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
- Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
- John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
- Romans 11:28-29 Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
- 1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
- 2 John 1:6 This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So ready is he rather to show mercy than…
So ready is he rather to show mercy than to punish.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them…
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Ver. 6. Unto thousands.] Of succeeding generations. Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. And this promise, though made to all, yet is more specially annexed to this second commandment; to teach, saith one, that parents should chiefly labour to plant piety in their families, as they would have God’s blessing entailed upon their issue. {See Trapp (for summary of Law) on "Exo 20:17"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Unto thousands, to wit, of their generations, i.e. for…
Unto thousands, to wit, of their generations, i.e. for ever; whereas his punishment extended only to three or four of them: so far is God’s mercy exalted above his justice. Compare Psa 103:17.
Them that love me, and keep my commandments: this conjunction is very observable, both against those that falsely and foolishly pretend or insinuate that the inward affection of love to God is not absolutely and always necessary to salvation; and also against them who, pretending inward love to God, live in the customary breach of God’s known commands.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love…
And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,.... And show their love by worshipping God, and him only, by serving him acceptably with reverence and godly fear, by a cheerful obedience to all his commands, by all religious exercises, both internal and external, as follows:
and keep my commandments; not only this, but all others; for keeping these from right principles, and with right views, is an instance and evidence of love to God, see Joh 14:15 and to such persons he shows mercy and kindness, performs acts of grace, and bestows on them blessings of goodness; and indeed it is owing to his own grace, mercy, and kindness to them, that they do love him, and from a principle of love observe his precepts; and this is shown to thousands, to multitudes, who are blessed with such grace as to love the Lord, and keep his commandments: though rather this is to be understood of a thousand generations, and not persons, and should have been supplied, as in the preceding verse, "unto a thousand generations", God being more abundant in showing mercy, and exercising grace and goodness, than he is rigorous in inflicting punishment.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. And showing mercy unto thousands] Mark; even…
Verse 6. And showing mercy unto thousands] Mark; even those who love God and keep his commandments merit nothing from him, and therefore the salvation and blessedness which these enjoy come from the mercy of God: Showing mercy, c. What a disproportion between the works of justice and mercy! Justice works to the third or fourth, mercy to thousands of generations!
The heathen had maxims like these. Theocritus also teaches that the children of the good shall be blessed because of their parents' piety, and that evil shall come upon the offspring of the wicked: -
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Ευσεβεων παιδεσσι τα λωΐα, δυσσεβεων δ' ου.
Idyll. 26, v. 32.
Upon the children of the righteous fall
The choicest blessings on the wicked, wo.
That love me, and keep my commandments.] It was this that caused Christ to comprise the fulfilment of the whole law in love to God and man; See Clarke on Ex 20:1. And as love is the grand principle of obedience, and the only incentive to it, so there can be no obedience without it. It would be more easy even in Egyptian bondage to make brick without straw, than to do the will of God unless his love be shed abroad in the heart of the Holy Spirit. Love, says the apostle, is the fulfilling of the law; Ro 13:10.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. Showing mercy — Or, doing kindness. His lovingkindness…
6. Showing mercy — Or, doing kindness. His lovingkindness and favour are never withheld from the good and obedient.
Unto thousands — Some would understand generations here, as after third and fourth in the previous verse. So superabundant is Jehovah’s kindness that he gladly will extend it to the thousandth generation of them that love him and keep his commandments. The expression, however, is best understood as general in its fulness of meaning. His kindness toward the loving and obedient is for all and for ever. Comp. Exo_34:6-7.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. unto thousands, of them, &c.] i.e. not thousands…
6. unto thousands, of them, &c.] i.e. not thousands consisting of them that love me, but (notice the comma added in RV.) thousands belonging to them that love me (Heb. le, just as in v. 5, properly ‘belonging to them that hate me’). The antithesis is between the narrow limits, the third or fourth generation of descendants, within which the sin is visited, and the thousands belonging to,—i.e. primarily, descended from, though possibly those ‘belonging to’ in a wider sense, as servants or other dependents, may be included,—such as love God, who, in virtue of this relation, and for the sake of those who thus love Him, experience His mercy. The intention of the passage is thus to teach that God’s mercy transcends in its operation His wrath: in His providence the beneficent consequences of a life of goodness extend indefinitely further than the retribution which is the penalty of persistence in sin. Naturally ‘thousands’ is not to be understood literally: it is simply intended to convey an impressive idea of the greatness of God’s mercy. It is not apparent how it can mean (RVm.) ‘a thousand generations’: Deu_7:9 is a rhetorical amplification, not an exact interpretation, of the present passage.
that love me] shew towards Him the pure and intense affection and devotion which we denote by the term ‘love.’ The thought is one strongly characteristic of Deuteronomy. ‘Love to God is in Dt. the essence of religion, and the primary motive for obedience to His commands. In no other stratum of the Hexateuch is this lofty conception of religion to be found’ (Bä.). See Deu_6:5 [Mar_12:30, Luk_10:27], Deu_10:12, Deu_11:1; Deu_11:13; Deu_11:22, Deu_13:3, Deu_19:9, Deu_30:6; Deu_30:16; Deu_30:20, Jos_22:5; Jos_23:11 both Deuteronomic); and cf. the writer’s Deuteronomy, pp. xxi, xxviii, lxxviii, 91. Love to God is not mentioned elsewhere in the Hexateuch, except in the parallel, Deu_5:10 (cf. Exo_7:19 : see, however, Jdg_5:30).
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It is, of course, not through extraordinary or miraculous interferences that the sins of parents are visited upon their children, but through the natural providence of God, operating through the normal constitution of society, which in its turn takes its organization and form from the character of human nature, which is His appointment. History and experience alike teach how often, and under what varied conditions, it happens that the misdeeds of a parent result in bitter consequences for the children. The principle here asserted is not in conflict with Deu_24:6 (children not to be put to death for the fathers): the legislator is not there dealing with a principle involved in the constitution of society itself; he is laying down a rule for the administration of justice by the State. See, on the distinction between the two cases, Mozley’s Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, Lect. V.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Shewing mercy unto thousands.—Rather, to the thousandth generation,…
(6) Shewing mercy unto thousands.—Rather, to the thousandth generation, as is distinctly expressed in Deu_7:9. God’s mercy infinitely transcends His righteous anger. Sin is visited on three, or at most four, generations. Righteousness is remembered, and advantages descendants, for ever.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Shewing mercy unto thousands. Or, to the thousandth generation."…
Shewing mercy unto thousands. Or, to the thousandth generation." (Compare Deu_7:9) In neither case are the numbers to be taken as exact and definite. The object of them is to contrast the long duration of the Divine love and favour towards the descendants of those who love him, with the comparatively short duration of his chastening wrath in the case of those who are his adversaries. And keep my commandments. Thus only is love shown. Compare Joh_14:15; 1Jn_2:5; 2Jn_1:6.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.