If I say, I will speak thus,.... Either as the wicked do, Psa 73:8 or rather as he had thought in his own mind, Psa 73:13, wherefore he kept it all to himself, and did not make known to others the reasonings of his mind, and the temptations he laboured under: behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children; of whom care should be taken, above all things, that they be not offended, Mat 18:6, or "should condemn"; as the Targum; or as Jarchi, "I should make them transgressors, and wicked persons;'' should represent them as if they were men hated and rejected of God, because of their afflictions: the words may be rendered, "behold the generation of thy children, I have transgressed" (q); by giving way to the above temptation, which might have been prevented by considering the church, children, and people of God, and the care he has taken of them, the regard he has shown to them, and the preservation of them in all ages. The words are an apostrophe to God, who has children by adopting grace, and which appear so by their regeneration; and there is a generation of them in all ages; when one goes, another comes; there is always a seed, a spiritual offspring, to serve him, which is counted for a generation. (q) "ecce generatio filiorum tuorum, praevaricatus sum", Pagninus, Montanus.