פירוש על דברים 7:9

לאלף דור TO A THOUSAND GENERATIONS — But elsewhere (5:10) it states: to thousands of generations! The explanation is: Here where it is connected with (refers to) "those who keep His commandments" it states that God's grace is extended to a thousand generations; but there where it is associated with "those who love Him" it states that it is extended to thousands of generations (Sotah 31a);

KNOW THEREFORE from the [circumstances of the] departure from Egypt THAT THE ETERNAL THY G-D, HE IS G-D Who created heaven and earth, as I have explained.³⁴²Above, 6:26. And know furthermore from this that He is THE FAITHFUL G-D Whose word shall not return void,³⁴³See Isaiah 55:11. and WHO KEEPETH THE COVENANT AND MERCY WITH THEM THAT LOVE HIM, AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, who fear His Name, TO A THOUSAND GENERATIONS of their seed, just as He kept for you the covenant of your fathers. And know further that He repayeth them that hate Him³⁴⁴Verse 10. the recompense of their wickedness to the face of each one of them to destroy them, just as He destroyed the Egyptians and did not delay [in bringing punishment] to them. Now this attribute that he mentioned is true forever. Thus although there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his evil-doing,³⁴⁵Ecclesiastes 7:15. it happens to him only because of this above-mentioned attribute that He is the Keeper of Mercy, and he [the wicked] has done some good which must be recompensed. If so, there are among the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, but two ways [of dealing with people]: He repays good for good, and evil for evil.
It is possible that those that hate Him [mentioned here as destined to be destroyed without delay] are those confirmed sinners who deny His existence and have no merit at all. As the Rabbis have said:³⁴⁶Koheleth Rabbah 7:32. “Rabbi Yashiyah said: Because of three things the Holy One, blessed be He, is long-suffering to the wicked in this world: they may repent, or they have observed commandments for which the Holy One, blessed be He, repays them their recompense in this world, or perhaps righteous people will descend from them. For so we find that He was long-suffering with Ahaz,³⁴⁷A wicked king of Judah (II Kings 16:1-5). and Hezekiah came from him; so also to Amon,³⁴⁸Ibid., 21:19-22. and Josiah came from him; and so also to Shimei,³⁴⁹The son of Gera, the Benjamite who cursed David (I Kings 28). and Mordecai came from him.”³⁵⁰Esther 2:5. Thus all these [three above categories] are not included in [the term] those that hate Him. Now there is a secret in the expression ‘el panav’ (to his face) [And He repayeth ‘them’ that hate Him ‘el panav’ — “to his face”]³⁵¹The point is that since the verse begins with the plural [‘those’ that hate Him], why does it change to the singular [to ‘his’ face, to destroy ‘him’]? Ramban alludes to the secret of the transmigration of the soul, so that at some future generation the recompense is still to “the face” of the sinner after he has been rewarded for the good he has done (Abusaula). as applying to a wicked man who has a good [i.e., a happy and prosperous] life.³⁵²Berachoth 7 a. And then he returns to say, Thou shalt therefore keep the commandment etc.,³⁵³Verse 11. meaning: “therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances so that you should not be among those who hate Him, who are destroyed, but instead you should be of those that love Him and keep His commandments³⁵⁴Verse 9. who are remembered for good and for life.”
Eikev

הא-ל הנאמן, Who is constant, not subject to change.

ולשומרי מצותיו לאלף דור, "and to those who observe His commandments for a thousand generations." Our sages in Sotah 31 say that those who perform the commandments out of fear will be favourably remembered for one thousand generations whereas those who perform the commandments out of love will be favourably remembered for two thousand generations. This is parallel to what is written in the second of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20,6). I do not believe that the word אלפים in Exodus 20,6 means merely twice one thousand; it may mean as many as 100,000. The reason that the Torah was not more specific is because love cannot be measured so precisely, some people love G'd more than others. As a result, G'd requites some people's love for longer periods than others. What the Torah did postulate was that he who serves G'd out of love, even if his love is minimal, deserves twice as much consideration as he who serves G'd out of fear though out of the most refined kind of reverence.

וידעת כי ה' אלוקיך הוא האלוקים, in the event that you might says: “seeing that G’d has to keep His oath to our patriarchs, why do we have to bother to keep His commandments, seeing that he has to give us this land under any circumstances? Moses answers such a theoretical question before it is even mouthed by telling the people that G’d does not have to let them have the land as an heritage, Although, He has sworn to give the land to Avraham’s and Yaakov’s descendants, He would not violate His oath if this generation of Jews were not to take possession of this land forthwith. It is one of G’d’s attributes that He sometimes lets a long time elapse before carrying out anything He has said which was not tied to a date. Just as He remembers loving kindness performed by His creatures for 1000 generations, so, not lapsing any reward due to the descendants of a deserving ancestor, so He may decide that you are the generation which will be the beneficiary of the promise and oath mentioned. Moses promises that the people whom he addresses will indeed become these beneficiaries with the proviso that they keep G’d’s commandments.

וידעת, “You must know;” the Exodus from Egypt surely taught you that the Lord your G’d is the true G’d, the One who created heaven and earth; this also taught us that this G’d is faithful and keeps His promises, including the various covenants which He entered into with your forefathers. You should know that just as this G’d keeps His promises so He will also exact retribution from those who deserve it. Each one of His enemies will be dealt with individually according to the severity of his sins. While it is true that sometimes we observe that G’d’s patience with a wicked person is extremely long, He will eventually, in His own good time, deal with such people, just as He dealt with the Egyptians. The reason that such retribution sometimes appears as long overdue, is that G’d also practices His virtue of rewarding everyone for his good deeds, and such wicked people as experience all this patience by G’d must have had good deeds to their credit for which they had not yet received a reward. Moses now reverts to

וידעת כי ה’ אלו-היך הוא האלו-הים ה-אל הנאמן, “and you know that the Lord your G’d He is the true G’d.” The word “you know” refers to the knowledge the people acquired at the Exodus that the Lord is the G’d who had created heaven and earth; further more you will know that He is a true G’d seeing that on that occasion He kept His promise and will continue to so seeing He has the power to do so. Whereas in our verse Moses speaks of one thousand generations hence, in a different context the Torah speaks of G’d remembering things two thousand generations hence. Our sages in Sotah 31 do not see a contradiction in this but say simply that when G’d is served out of fear He will remember this for 1,000 generations and there will be positive fallout. When someone serves Hashem out of love the fallout will continue for 2,000 generations. In each instance, the number of generations that G’d reacts to who either hate Him or love him is mentioned next to the words לשונאיו or לאוהביו respectively. This teaches that the verse is not to be understood only collectively, but that G’d deals with each person on his merits (Nachmanides).

But below it states: “For thousands of generations,” etc. In other words: Those who keep His commandments out of fear [are rewarded] for a thousand generations, and those who do so out of love [are rewarded] for two thousand generations. Even though it is also written here, “those who love Him,” before, “those who keep His commandments,” One may say: “Those who love Him” is connected to the previous phrase, “Who keeps the covenant and the kindliness.” And, “Those who keep,” is connected to the phrase written afterwards. Likewise above (5:10) it is written, “two thousand,” and it is also written, “for those who guard.” There also, the answer is similar: “For those who love,” is connected to the phrase preceding it, which is, “For two thousand.” And “For those who keep,” [are rewarded] for a thousand generations.

V. 9. וידעת וגו׳: aus der Erfahrung deiner Erlösung weißt du, dass Gott, der sich in deiner Geschichte als dein Gott gezeigt hat, überhaupt der Gott ist, den alle Völker, sei es unter welchem Namen, als "Gott" erkennen oder ahnen. Und du weißt ferner, dass Er die einzige Gottesmacht ist, welcher der Mensch vertrauen kann usw. האלהים ist das allgemeine Gottbewusstsein, האל הנאמן usw. das spezifisch jüdische Gottbewusstsein. Hoheit und Macht sind die Gottesattribute im allgemeinen Menschenbewusstsein. Treue, Liebe und Gerechtigkeit in Bundesfreundschaft mit dem Menschen bildet das Besondere des jüdischen Wissens von Gott. Vor seiner Macht beugen sich die Himmel und die Erde; dass Er aber wie Freund dem Freunde in Bundesnähe dem Menschen nahe ist, das hat Israel aus seiner Geschichte erfahren (vergl. Ps.112 3 — 9).

וידעת כי ה' אלוקין־, “for you know that He is the Lord your G-d;” this is a continuation of the two previous verses. The reason why you are so certain that Hashem is the Lord your G-d is because you are aware of what He has done for your ancestors commencing with Avraham. He has faithfully kept all the promises He has given them. (B’chor shor)

לאהביו are those who do the commandments out of love.

שומר הברית ומשלם לשונאיו, the meaning of the words רשע וטוב לו, [a favourite argument of the heretics who point to the afflictions suffered by the pious and the good life enjoyed by the pious in this life. Ed.] can be understood on two levels: 1) the “good” the wicked appear to enjoy in this life is due to merits accumulated by their forefathers who had not been recompensed for these as yet by G’d. A prominent example of this is the enjoyable life lived by Ishmael who benefited by Avraham’s merits. G’d Himself referred to this in Genesis 21,13 when He said כי זרעך הוא, “because he is your seed. 2) The wicked person himself has accumulated some merits; seeing that on balance he does not qualify for life in the hereafter, G’d has to compensate him while he is on earth. This He does by letting him enjoy the transient joys available in this life to the extent his merits entitle him to.

נאמן, ein passiver Begriff: dem Vertrauen zu schenken ist, ׳שומר הברית וגו, wie ihr erfahren, dass er den den Vätern zugesicherten ברית noch nach Jahrhunderten erfüllt und die Verdienste der Väter noch an euch gelohnt.

לאלף דור, “for up to a thousand generations.” Why did these words have to be added? Having told you that G-d loves you, you might think that you do not have to bother to keep all the commandments of His Torah, seeing that G-d is obligated to keep His oath to our forefathers, regardless. G-d is willing to wait with keeping His promises for as long as a thousand generations, if in the interval no generation had proved worthy of what He had promised to the forefathers.

ולשמרי מצותיו are those who do them out of fear.

שומר הברית, “He keeps His covenant;” the word שומר here means: “waiting in anticipation,” as it did in Genesis 37,11 where Yaakov was described as awaiting fulfillment of Joseph’s dream with the words: ואביו שמר את הדבר, “and his father remained in expectation of what would happen.”