'Generation' in the Bible

Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees.

Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.

and he said, “The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed.

‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord,

The sons of the third generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

“Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say,

“They have acted corruptly toward Him,They are not His children, because of their defect;But are a perverse and crooked generation.

“Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,I will see what their end shall be;For they are a perverse generation,Sons in whom is no faithfulness.

All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.”

This is the word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” And so it was.

So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants.

You, O Lord, will keep them;You will preserve him from this generation forever.

There they are in great dread,For God is with the righteous generation.

Posterity will serve Him;It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.

This is the generation of those who seek Him,Who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,The plans of His heart from generation to generation.

Consider her ramparts;Go through her palaces,That you may tell it to the next generation.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers;They will never see the light.

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,Until I declare Your strength to this generation,Your power to all who are to come.

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

We will not conceal them from their children,But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,That they may arise and tell them to their children,

And not be like their fathers,A stubborn and rebellious generation,A generation that did not prepare its heartAnd whose spirit was not faithful to God.

“For forty years I loathed that generation,And said they are a people who err in their heart,And they do not know My ways.

This will be written for the generation to come,That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.

Let his posterity be cut off;In a following generation let their name be blotted out.

His descendants will be mighty on earth;The generation of the upright will be blessed.

One generation shall praise Your works to another,And shall declare Your mighty acts.

A generation goes and a generation comes,But the earth remains forever.

It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

It will not be quenched night or day;Its smoke will go up forever.From generation to generation it will be desolate;None will pass through it forever and ever.

He has cast the lot for them,And His hand has divided it to them by line.They shall possess it forever;From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away;And as for His generation, who consideredThat He was cut off out of the land of the livingFor the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

“Whereas you have been forsaken and hatedWith no one passing through,I will make you an everlasting pride,A joy from generation to generation.

“O generation, heed the word of the Lord.Have I been a wilderness to Israel,Or a land of thick darkness?Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam;We will no longer come to You’?

‘Cut off your hair and cast it away,And take up a lamentation on the bare heights;For the Lord has rejected and forsakenThe generation of His wrath.’

“Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals;The ostriches also will live in it,And it will never again be inhabitedOr dwelt in from generation to generation.

You, O Lord, rule forever;Your throne is from generation to generation.

“How great are His signsAnd how mighty are His wonders!His kingdom is an everlasting kingdomAnd His dominion is from generation to generation.

“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever;For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

Tell your sons about it,And let your sons tell their sons,And their sons the next generation.

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children,

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”

Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

And He *answered them and *said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!”

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

“And His mercy is upon generation after generationToward those who fear Him.

“To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?

And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’

But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place.

And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

“In humiliation His judgment was taken away;Who will relate His generation?For His life is removed from the earth.”

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay;

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

“Therefore I was angry with this generation,And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,And they did not know My ways’;

It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,