Jeremiah 31:30

30 Instead, those who eat sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge; and everyone will die because of their own sin."

Jeremiah 31:30 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 31:30

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity
His own personal iniquity; and not a corporeal death only, but an eternal one, which is the just wages of sin. It seems to intimate, that, after the Babylonish captivity, no public calamity should come upon them for the sins of their fathers and their own jointly, but for their own iniquities singly; so their last destruction by the Romans was for their personal disbelief and rejection of the Messiah; see ( John 8:24 ) ; and the calamities upon them ever since have been for the same reason. Indeed, they imprecated his blood upon them, and upon their children, and so it is; but then, their children are under the power of the same sin of unbelief, and will remain so, until the veil is taken away, and they turn to the Lord; after which it will still be a more clear case that everyone shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge;
sin, though it may be esteemed a sweet morsel, is a sour grape, and will prove so in the issue; and will give a man as much trouble and disquietude, when he is convinced of the evil of it, or suffers the punishment of it, as when a man's "teeth are set on edge"; and indeed the consequence of it will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

Jeremiah 31:30 In-Context

28 And just as I took care to uproot, to pull down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to demolish them, so I will take care to plant them and to build them up.

29 When that time comes, people will no longer say, "The parents ate the sour grapes, But the children got the sour taste.'

30 Instead, those who eat sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge; and everyone will die because of their own sin."

31 The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.