Jeremiah 31:30

30 but each man shall die in his wickedness, each man that eateth a sour grape, his teeth shall be astonied. (but each person shall die for their own wickedness, each person who eateth a sour grape, his teeth shall be astonished, or shall be set on edge.)

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 as I waked on them, to draw up by the root, and to destroy, and to scatter, and to lose, and to torment; so I shall wake on them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. (And as I kept watch over them, in order to draw them up by the root, and to destroy, and to scatter, and to lose, and to torment them, now I shall keep watch over them, in order to build, and to plant them, saith the Lord.)
29 In those days they shall no more say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the teeth of [the] sons were astonied;
30 but each man shall die in his wickedness, each man that eateth a sour grape, his teeth shall be astonied. (but each person shall die for their own wickedness, each person who eateth a sour grape, his teeth shall be astonished, or shall be set on edge.)
31 Lo! days come, saith the Lord, and I shall smite a new bond of peace to the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah; (Lo! days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall strike a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;)
32 not by the covenant which I made with your fathers, in the day in which I took the hand of them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which they made void; and I was Lord of them, saith the Lord (though I was like a lord, or like a husband, to them, saith the Lord).
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.