Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.
Significance
Ezekiel 18:1-4 develops the legal principle of Deuteronomy 24:16 into a full theological argument about divine justice. Where Deuteronomy established individual accountability as a judicial rule (forbidding courts from executing children for parents' crimes), Ezekiel universalizes it: "every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine" (כָּל־הַנְּפָשׁוֹת לִי הֵנָּה, kol-hannefashot li hennah). The exiles were using the sour grapes proverb to blame their fathers for the exile, but Ezekiel insists that God's justice operates on the same individual principle Moses legislated—each person is accountable for his own עֲוֹן (avon, "iniquity"), and the way of repentance remains open to each generation.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Analogy
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