Here is a challenging scripture to the children of Israel. It says parents who introduce idolatry into their family culture can expect it to have a debilitating effect on their descendants clear down to the third and fourth generation "of them that hate me." This is a direct quote from Exodus 20:5 and it is repeated a number of times all through the Old Testament. Of course where heathen nations introduced idolatry among their people it became a permanent part of their culture, far beyond the third and fourth generation.