Deuteronomy 1:39

Only among the young of that generation should the inheritance be divided, as they had no part in the rebellion of their seniors. Your little ones ; i.e. children beginning to walk ( טַף , from טָפַף mo, to trip, to take short and quick steps). And your children —boys and girls— which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil ; rather, of whom [ye said] they know not today good and evil . The Hebrews were wont to express totality or universality by specifying contradictory opposites, as, e . g . great and small ( 2 Chronicles 34:30 ), master and scholar ( Malachi 2:1-17 :20), free and bond ( Revelation 13:16 ; Revelation 19:18 ), shut up and left ( Deuteronomy 32:36 , where see note; 1 Kings 14:10 ), etc. Accordingly, when good and evil are set over against each other, the notion of entireness or universality is expressed. Thus, when Laban and Bethuel said to Abraham's servant "We cannot speak unto thee bad or good" ( Genesis 24:50 ), the meaning is, We can say nothing at all. Absalom spake to Amnon "neither good nor bad" ( 2 Samuel 13:22 ); that is, he did not say anything to him. The woman of Tekoa said to David, "As an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad" ( 2 Samuel 14:17 ); i . e . There is nothing the king does not know—his knowledge is universal. Hence to know good and evil came to mean to be intelligent, and not to know good and evil to be unintelligent, as is a babe. The children here referred to knew nothing, and consequently could not be held as morally responsible; comp. Isaiah 7:15 ; Homer, ' Odyssey,' 18.228—

οἴδα ἔκαστα

ἐσθλά τε καὶ χέρεια παρὸς δ ̓ ἔτι νήπιος ἠᾶ