Ezekiel 18:18

18 But the parent will die for what the parent did, for the sins of - oppressing the weak, robbing brothers and sisters, doing what is dead wrong in the community.

Ezekiel 18:18 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 18:18

[As for] his father
It shall be otherwise with him: because he cruelly oppressed;
or, "oppressed an oppression"; or, "with an oppression" F9; oppressed the poor, and had no mercy on them, but used them in the most rigorous manner: spoiled his brother by violence;
took away the spoil of his brother; spoiled him of his substance; did injury to his person and property, and all the mischief that lay in his power: and did [that] which [is] not good among his people;
neighbours, citizens, and countrymen; did nothing which was good, as he ought to have done; but everything that was bad, which he should not have done: lo, even he shall die in his iniquity:
and for it; it shall not be forgiven him; he shall be punished for it with death, with the death of affliction; and with corporeal death, as a punishment for sin; and with eternal death, dying in his sins, and in a state of impenitence. These instances, put every way, most clearly show the equity of God; the justness of his proceedings in providence; and how inapplicable the proverb in ( Ezekiel 18:2 ) was to them; and that such that sin, and continue therein, shall die for their own iniquities, and not for the sins of others.


FOOTNOTES:

F9 (qve qve) "oppressit oppressionem", Pagninus, Montanus; "oppressit oppressione", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.

Ezekiel 18:18 In-Context

16 doesn't bully anyone, doesn't refuse to loan money, doesn't steal, doesn't refuse food to the hungry, doesn't refuse to give clothes to the ill-clad,
17 doesn't live by impulse and greed, doesn't exploit the poor. He does what I say; he performs my laws and lives by my statutes.
18 But the parent will die for what the parent did, for the sins of - oppressing the weak, robbing brothers and sisters, doing what is dead wrong in the community.
19 "Do you need to ask, 'So why does the child not share the guilt of the parent?'
20 The soul that sins is the soul that dies. The child does not share the guilt of the parent, nor the parent the guilt of the child. If you live upright and well, you get the credit; if you live a wicked life, you're guilty as charged.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.