Hidden Contradictions?
who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:7 NASB
No means leave the guilty unpunished – Exodus 34:6-7 is one of the most important passages in the Tanakh. In these verses God describes His own character, illuminating who He is in relationship to us. This is the Hebrew counterpoint to a theology of divine attributes like those of Thomas Aquinas. But in the middle of these important words about mercy, forgiveness, and justice, the Hebrew text contains an apparent contradiction. Buried in the translation is an odd Hebrew doublet. The Hebrew text reads, nakkeh lo yenakkeh, literally, “clear He not clearing.” If we read the verse literally, it would be something like this: who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet clear He not clearing . . .” What are we to make of this?
First, we should note the use of the term in cognate languages. “The root nāqâ with the meaning ‘to be clean, pure, spotless’ is found in Akkadian, Arabic and Aramaic. The derived juridical notion ‘to be acquitted,’ ‘to go unpunished’ is found only in Hebrew.”[1]
Then we need to recognize the rabbinic wrestling with the doublet:
“If Rabbi Akiva was strict regarding mitzvot between human and God, he was even more so in the case of mitzvot between human beings and human beings. The verse says, ‘yet not clearing, clearing the guilty’ (Exodus 34:7). Rabbi Akiva expounded: ‘One phrase says “clearing (nakkeh)” and one phrase says “not clearing (lo yenakkeh).” How can this contradiction be reconciled? “Clearing” refers to the mitzvot between human beings and God. “Not clearing” refers to the mitzvot between human beings and human beings.’”[2]
Tucker comments:
“The more common exegesis on the splitting of nakkeh and lo yenakkeh goes in a very different direction and states that God clears those who repent and does not clear those who do not repent, a clearly Ishmaelian view . . .”[3]
In translation you will never know this tension is incorporated in the Hebrew. More’s the pity because justice and mercy are always in tension and it is incumbent upon followers of YHVH to recognize this divine stress. It is the substance of our lives—with each other and with God. So read the doublet, and be thankful this is God’s tension too.
Topical Index: justice, mercy, forgiveness, doublet, nakkeh lo yenakkeh, Exodus 34:7
Sukkot begins. Enjoy the gathering and time of communal reflection.
[1] Fisher, M. C., & Waltke, B. K. (1999). 1412 נָקָה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 596). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, p. 177.
[3] Gordon Tucker, in Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations (ed. and trans. by Gordon Tucker, Continuum International Publishing Group, New York, 2007), p. 177, fn. 39.
