“And God descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name of God. And God passed by before him and
proclaimed: God, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth
generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And 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 unto the
fourth generation.”
Don Isaac Abravanel, sometimes spelled Abarbanel (1437-1508) was a seminal Jewish thinker, scholar, and prolific Biblical
commentator. In Exodus 34, the Torah affords what is arguably the closest peek into God’s elusive
nature, including a guide into how He relates to man. Gorgeous eloquence transcribes God’s thirteen
attributes of mercy. Abravanel’s discourse on the subject provides Bible students with a memorable
interpretation of the Creator’s divine traits. See Abravanel’s World for the essay in its entirety.
Abravanel asks: What underlies the terse descriptions of the divine? Additionally, how are readers to
understand the grammatical style of this passage, one that appears choppy and disjointed? Note, for
example, how the thirteen attributes commence with God’s name, and repeats that name, before
providing adjectives which depict, per se, the Maker’s defining characteristics (“merciful”, “’gracious”
etc.). Finally, the paragraph switches gears into verbal or predicate phrases that portray God’s conduct
(“keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation”, “visiting the iniquity” etc.).
In fantastic shorthand, here is how Abravanel approaches these all-important theological lessons. God’s
(Hashem) name – repeated – establishes His credentials as the Creator of existence; His will perpetuates
life (“God, the Lord”). The next mention of the One Above (El) features His role as the Main Mover or
Lever of the heavens. The divine crank, for lack of a better word or image, churns lower celestial beings
into motion. Three appellations of God begin the first three of the thirteen attributes count (“God, the
Lord, God”).
Traits four, five, and six bespeak God’s relationship with man, at his embryonic and early development
stages. We refer to “merciful”, “gracious”, and “long-suffering.”
Next come seven, eight, and nine. These are the Creator’s benevolence with the righteous and pious –
“abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation.” God reserves and
applies the final four, which brings the attribute count to ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen to evildoers –
“forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children….”
