The punishment ¹  of Ephraim has been decreed; ²  his punishment is being stored up for the future.

For I would have committed ¹  a shameful act, ²  an iniquity to be judged. ³ 

then this ¹  also would be iniquity to be judged, ²  for I would have been false ³  to God above.

Why should I be afraid in times of trouble, ¹  when the sinful deeds of deceptive men threaten to overwhelm me? ² 

Though I have done nothing wrong, ¹  they are anxious to attack. ²  Spring into action and help me! Take notice of me! ³ 

Hold them accountable for all their sins! ¹  Do not vindicate them! ² 

You pardoned ¹  the wrongdoing of your people; you forgave ²  all their sin. (Selah)

Through loyal love and truth ¹  iniquity is appeased; ²  through fearing the Lord ³  one avoids ⁴  evil. ⁵ 

Lord, we confess that we have been wicked. We confess that our ancestors have done wrong. ¹  We have indeed ²  sinned against you.

In the fourth generation ¹  your descendants ²  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ³ 

and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ¹  when they eat their holy offerings, ²  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

So Saul was keeping an eye on David from that day onward.

But Saul swore an oath to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not incur guilt in this matter!”

¹ ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean ²  and have no iniquity.

How blessed is the one ¹  whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish, ²  in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³ 

May his ancestors’ ¹  sins be remembered by the Lord! May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ² 

No resident of Zion ¹  will say, “I am ill”; the people who live there will have their sin forgiven.

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹ 

keeping loyal love for thousands, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ²  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ²  but by no means clearing ³  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ⁴