Jeremiah 31:30

30 "No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you're the one who gets sick.

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 in the same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting.
29 "When that time comes you won't hear the old proverb anymore, Parents ate the green apples, their children got the stomachache.
30 "No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you're the one who gets sick.
31 "That's right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah.
32 It won't be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master." God's Decree.
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.