Text: Ezekiel 18:1-4
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 24:16
Subject: individual accountability for sin
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy
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.