דּוֹר

From the study of Exodus 12:14

Range of meaning

A generation: a lifetime's span, or the people living in it. In the plural with a suffix ('your generations') it means the chain of descendants following one after another. It is closely tied to kinship and inheritance.

Against the English

'Throughout your generations' (KJV, WEB, ESV), 'for the generations to come' (BSB, NIV) and 'from generation to generation' (NLT) all render it well.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint: eis pasas tas geneas hymōn, 'to all your generations' (adding 'all'). The phrase recurs throughout priestly law for perpetual obligations (e.g. Lev 3:17; 23:14, 21, 31, 41).

From the study of Isaiah 51:8

Range of meaning

dôr is a generation: the span of a human lifetime and the people alive in it. 'Generation of generations' is a Hebrew superlative pattern, meaning all generations, one after another.

Against the English

BSB and WEB 'through/to all generations' and KJV 'from generation to generation' capture the meaning. The literal 'generation of generations' adds a rhythm of piling up.

Used elsewhere in the period

Similar phrases: Ps 72:5 (dôr dôrîm), Isa 13:20, Ps 102:24 ('your years are throughout all generations'). Isa 51:9 nearby has dōrôt ʿôlāmîm, 'generations of ages'.

From the study of Isaiah 53:8

Range of meaning

A generation, meaning the people alive at one time (contemporaries), or a lifespan or cycle of time. By extension it can mean a class of people ('a generation of the upright', Ps 112:2). Isa 38:12 uses dôrî in a sense often taken as 'my dwelling' or 'my lifetime' ('my dwelling is plucked up'), and some scholars apply that sense, or 'fate/lot', here.

Against the English

KJV 'who shall declare his generation?' is ambiguous: lineage, origin or contemporaries? BSB (with older NIV) reads 'descendants'. ESV/NASB/WEB read his contemporaries ('as for his generation, who considered…'). NIV 2011 reads 'who of his generation protested?'

How it drifted

Ancient and medieval Christian readers took the Septuagint/Latin 'who shall tell his generation' as a question about Christ's unspeakable origin, his eternal begetting from the Father. The KJV wording kept that open. In ordinary Hebrew, dôr means contemporaries, not begetting.

Used elsewhere in the period

Very common (about 165 times), almost always meaning a generation of people (Gen 7:1; Deut 32:5, 'a crooked generation'). Septuagint: genea, 'generation' (Acts 8:33).