ונקה לא ינקה. שאינו מבער הפושעים מן העולם והוא כמו ויסרתיך למשפט ונקה לא אנקך: ונקה לא ינקה, “and He will not let a guilty person be exonerated completely without having paid a price for knowingly having sinned.” [This is the standard explanation of this expression. Ed.] Our author- if I understand him correctly,- understands it as G–d saying that the world we live in will never be completely free of deliberate sinners. He used Jeremiah 30,11 as his proof for this interpretation. The Prophet there says: ויסרתיך למשפט ונקה לא ינקך, (after having wiped out the sinful nations) “but I will not let you go unpunished, but I will chastise you in measure”.
פוקד עון אבות על בנים. וזו היא מדת רחמים שאינו נפרע עד דור רביעי ובפרשת כי תשא שבא למנות כל המדות כתיב על בני בנים אבל לא חשש להאריך כל כך. וגם מכאן אתה למד דנקה לא ינקה מדת רחמים מדחשיב ליה הכא: פוקד עון אבות על בנים, “visiting the sins of the fathers on the children;” this is another aspect of G–d’s attribute of Mercy, that He delays punishing the fathers, waiting if the children or grandchildren will return to Him before carrying out the punishment that had been deserved by them. In Exodus 34,7, where the list of G–d’s attributes first appears, the wording isבני בנים , “grandchildren,” not “children,” as here. In both instances, the point G–d makes is that while He may delay exacting punishment, depending on the severity of the sin in question, He will not allow sins that are not repented to go totally unpunished.