Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth [generation].
Ver. 7. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,] i.e., All sorts of sin. It is natural to him as here. None like him for this. Mic 7:18 It is the comfort of saints, that they have to do with a forgiving God, Neh 9:31 that can multiply pardons, as they multiply sins. Isa 55:7
Keeping mercy for thousands.] The Hebrew word here rendered Keeping, is written with a greater letter a than ordinary, to note the extraordinary greatness of God's promise to his people and their posterity. Psa 25:10 Hebrew Text Note God is here said to keep mercy, to forgive sins of all sorts: as if his mercy were kept on purpose for pardoning poor sinners.
Clear the guilty.] This last letter in God's name must still be remembered. So must all the rest: since there is enough in this sweetest text to answer all our objections. It is said of Leonard Lessius, that, a little before his death, he finished his treatise concerning the fifty names or attributes of God: and that he oft affirmed, that he found more spiritual light and delight in that last little work of his - at such time as he was grievously tortured with the stone, whereof also he died - than in all his large Commentaries upon Thomas Aquinas's Sums.
a Nun rabbath Masor.