Ezekiel 18:1-20

Complete Jewish Bible

18 The word of Adonai came to me: ² “What does it mean, that you keep quoting this proverb in the land of Isra’el —

³ “As I live,” says Adonai Elohim, “I swear that you will never again quote this proverb in Isra’el. ⁴ Look, all lives belong to me — both the parent’s life and the child’s life are equally mine — so it is the person who sins, himself, who must die.

⁵ “Consider someone who is righteous, who does what is lawful and right. ⁶ He doesn’t eat on the mountains or raise his eyes toward the idols of the house of Isra’el; he doesn’t defile his neighbor’s wife or touch a woman during her time of menstrual impurity; ⁷ he doesn’t wrong anyone; he returns any pledged property a debtor has given as collateral for a loan; he takes nothing by robbery, but gives his food to the hungry and clothing to those who need it; ⁸ he neither demands nor accepts interest on a loan; he refrains from what is evil; and he judges honestly between one person and another. ⁹ In short, he lives according to my laws and observes my rulings, so as to act faithfully. Such a person is righteous, and he will certainly live,” says Adonai Elohim.

¹⁰ “Now suppose he is the father of a son who is a robber, a murderer, or who does any of these things to a brother — ¹¹ whereas the father himself does none of them. He eats on the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, ¹² wrongs the poor and needy, takes by robbery, doesn’t restore pledged property, raises his eyes toward the idols, engages in disgusting practices, ¹³ demands and accepts interest. Should he live? He will not live, because he has engaged in all these disgusting practices — he must be put to death; his blood is on him.

¹⁴ “But now suppose he has a son who sees all the sins his father committed, thinks about them, and behaves differently. ¹⁵ He doesn’t eat on the mountains, raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Isra’el, defile his neighbor’s wife, ¹⁶ wrong others, keep pledged property or take by robbery, but gives his food to the hungry and clothing to those in need of it; ¹⁷ he refrains from oppressing the poor; and he neither demands nor accepts interest. He obeys my rulings and lives according to my laws. So he will not die for his father’s sins but will certainly live. ¹⁸ Yet his father, because he oppressed so cruelly, committed robbery against his brother and never did anything good among his people — he will die for his sins.

¹⁹ “You ask, ‘Why doesn’t the son bear his father’s guilt?’ When the son has done what is lawful and right, has kept all my laws and obeyed them, he will certainly live. ²⁰ The person who sins is the one that will die — a son is not to bear his father’s guilt with him, nor is the father to bear his son’s guilt with him; but the righteousness of the righteous will be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked will be his own.