The Thirteen Attributes continue with a ledger of divine bookkeeping that tips heavily toward mercy.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives the second half of the formula. "Keeping mercy and bounty for thousands of generations, absolving and remitting guilt, passing by rebellions, and covering sins; pardoning them who convert unto the law, but holding not guiltless in the great day of judgment those who will not convert; visiting the sins of fathers upon rebellious children upon the third and upon the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:7).
Count the accounting. Mercy is stored for thousands of generations. Wrath, when it comes, is limited to the third or fourth. Even a rough comparison puts the ratio at 250 to 1 in favor of mercy. The divine economy is not balanced. It is tilted.
The Targum also inserts a crucial clarification that changes Jewish theology forever. The verse in the plain text seems to punish children for fathers' sins. The Aramaic paraphrase adds one qualifier: bnin marodin, rebellious children. The third and fourth generations are only held accountable if they continue the rebellion. A child who turns from the father's sin is not accountable for it. Only the child who chooses to repeat the pattern inherits the consequence.
This is teshuvah as theological principle. Repentance breaks the chain. The fathers' sins stop at whichever generation decides to stop.
Takeaway: Divine justice is patient beyond imagining, and its severity is reserved only for those who willfully continue the rebellion. The ledger always favors the one who repents.