Yechezkel 18:19

19 Yet say ye, Why? Doth not the ben bear the avon (iniquity, guilt) of the av? When the ben hath done that which is mishpat and tzedakah, and hath been shomer over all My chukkot, and hath done them, he shall surely live.

Yechezkel 18:19 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 18:19

Yet say ye, why?
&c.] Why do you say so? why do you go on to assert that which is not fact, or which is contrary to fact, contrary to what we feel and experience every day, to say that children are not punished for their parents' sins? these are the words of the murmuring, complaining, and blaspheming Jews, quarrelling with the prophet, and with the Lord himself: doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?
have not we proof of it every day we live? are not our present case and circumstances a full evidence of it? or the words may be rendered, "why does not the son bear the iniquity of the father?" so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; or, as the Targum,

``why is not the son punished for the sins of the father?''

and so they are an objection, which is foreseen might be made, and is here anticipated, to which an answer is returned; and so the Syriac version introduces it, "but if they said" then adds, "tell them", as follows: when,
or "because" the son hath done that which is lawful [and] right, and hath kept all
my statutes, and hath done them:
this is the reason why he shall not bear his father's sins, or be punished for them; intimating that they had not done these things that made the complaint, or put the, question; but had committed the same sins their fathers had, and so were punished, not for their fathers' sins, but their own: for otherwise the man that does what is just and right with God, and between man and man, he shall surely live; (See Gill on Ezekiel 18:17).

Yechezkel 18:19 In-Context

17 That hath taken off his yad from the oni, that hath not received neshekh (usury) nor tarbit (interest), hath executed My mishpat, hath walked in My chukkot; he shall not die for the avon aviv, he shall surely live.

18 As for aviv, because he cruelly oppressed with extortion, spoiled his brother by a robber’s violence, and did that which is not tov among his people, hinei, even he shall die in his avon.

19 Yet say ye, Why? Doth not the ben bear the avon (iniquity, guilt) of the av? When the ben hath done that which is mishpat and tzedakah, and hath been shomer over all My chukkot, and hath done them, he shall surely live.

20 The nefesh that sinneth, it shall die. The ben shall not bear the avon of the av, neither shall the av bear the avon of the ben; the tzedakat hatzaddik shall be upon him, and the rishat rashah shall be upon him.

21 But if the rashah will turn from all his chattot that he hath committed, and be shomer over all My chukkot, and do that which is mishpat and tzedakah, he shall surely live, he shall not die.