They said, *We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Kena`an; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.*
Ya`akov, their father, said to them, *You have bereaved me of my children! Yosef is no more, Shim`on is no more, and you want to take Binyamin away. All these things are against me.*
Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.*
you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Then shall you tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me:
Thus says the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning Eretz-Yisra'el, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.