Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ezekiel · About this commentary
The Soul Who Sins Will Die
Ezekiel 18:1-20
1 Yahweh’s word came to me again, saying, · WEB
A proverb that let a generation blame its parents is abolished, and three generations of one family are worked through to show why.
The proverb is quoted first, and it was evidently in general use: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. It is a complaint with an argument inside it. We are suffering for what our parents did; the sentence we are under is inherited; therefore our own conduct is beside the point. Anyone in Babylon could point to Manasseh and make the case.
The reply refuses the saying outright — you shall not use this proverb any more in Israel — and grounds the refusal in ownership rather than in fairness. All souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. Every person stands in a direct relation to God, and no one is held in the account of somebody else. From that follows the principle the chapter is known for: The soul who sins, he shall die.
What gives the argument its force is that it is then worked out as a case study rather than asserted. A righteous man is described by what he does — no idolatry, no adultery, no oppression, the pledge restored, bread given to the hungry, no interest taken, honest judgment between men. He lives. His son is violent and does the opposite, item by item against the same list. He dies, and his father's righteousness does not save him. That son's own son sees what his father did and does not imitate it. He lives, and his father's wickedness does not condemn him. Three generations, the same checklist applied three times, and the verdict turning each time on the man in front of us.
The list itself is worth noticing, because it settles what the chapter means by righteousness. It is almost entirely about how a man treats his neighbor and his neighbor's property. Restoring the debtor's pledge and refusing interest appear twice, and feeding the hungry and clothing the naked stand beside abstaining from idols as items of equal weight. The conclusion is stated in a sentence that closes the proverb permanently: The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.
settled What this mark means