Chapter Eighteen
The Beginning of Personal Moral Responsibility
Having shown in chapter XVII the treachery of Zedekiah as likewise the cause of Jerusalem’s fall, just as was all the historical past of Israel (chapter XVI), the prophet in chapter XVIII grounds this thought of chapter XVII (as chapter XV grounds chapter XVI) on the strict divine justice, which cannot permit anyone to suffer for the sins of another, and, consequently, cannot permit the present generation of Jews to be punished for the former sins of Israel. Verses 1–4 comprise the introduction or theme: the proclamation of moral freedom and responsibility of each before God – in connection with one folk saying; in verses 5–20 this thought is explained by three examples; in verses 21–29 it is clarified that the developed principle of personal moral responsibility applies not to all the previous behavior of a man, but to his moral state at the time of God’s judgment; verses 30–32 – a hortatory conclusion.
Ezekiel 18:2. What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel: «The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge»? «The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.» The prophet Jeremiah also mentions such a saying (Jer 31:29; cf. Lam 5:7). Unripe grapes are eaten even now in Syria in vast quantities; (Delitzsch, Hiob XV, 33). A bitter taste appears immediately upon tasting sour berries and passes quickly: therefore it is completely impossible to suppose that it is transmitted from fathers to children (reductio ad absurdum). Yet, in the opinion of the Jews of that time, expressed in this saying, God’s action, punishing them with present calamities for the sins of their fathers, is like the inherited transmission of a bitter taste. It is easy to guess how this saying could have arisen, which smells of doubt concerning God’s justice and of the presumption of descendants over ancestors. The saying had visible grounds even in Holy Scripture: God tells Moses that He punishes children for the guilt of fathers up to the third and fourth generation (Exod 20:5; Lev 26:39-40, but adding: «who hate Me,» which definition according to grammatical construction can refer both to the children and to the fathers). And indeed the 3rd and 4th generation from the ungodly Manasseh (Joahaz, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah – grandsons and great-grandsons of Manasseh) are punished. Even Josiah, despite his piety, finds a sorrowful end in battle at Megiddo. And the prophets proclaimed that for the sins of Manasseh the Lord will reject Judah from His face (2 Sam 24:3; Jer 15:4); since the time of Manasseh, indeed, Judea’s circumstances grew ever worse, despite some efforts to appease Jehovah (cf. Jer 44:18).
Ezekiel 18:3. As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. «As I live» – the oath witnesses the importance of the matter: the question concerns the honor of God’s name. – «This proverb shall no more be used in Israel.» God will convince by His judgments of the justice of His rule. The prophet Jeremiah promises the abolition of this saying only in the days of the new covenant (Jer 31:29).
Ezekiel 18:4. Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sins shall die. «All souls are Mine.» Consequently, it is not necessary for God to avenge the sins of one on another: He can always punish the sins of each on the guilty party himself. «The preciousness of the human soul is expressed here as never before: each soul belongs to God, that is, God stands in the same relation to each soul and treats it as it treats Him» (Bertholet). – «The soul that sins shall die.» See explanation of Ezek 3:18. Death constitutes the opposite of that life which is promised to the righteous in verse 9 (see there), consequently, means mainly perishing in the impending catastrophe; and the exclusion connected with it from the future Messianic kingdom. Here, for the first time in the Old Testament, there is mention of spiritual death, but by soul is meant rather man in general, living man.
Ezekiel 18:5. If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right, In order to prove the statement of verse 4 clearly, the prophet presents in verses 5–9 an example of complete opposition between the behavior of a godly father, an ungodly son, and a godly grandson, and it is thought that the prophet had in mind from historical persons Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah. «Does what is lawful and right.» These two concepts usually embrace all the laws, wherein the first may mean more ethical and judicial obligations, and the second religious ones.
Ezekiel 18:6. and does not eat sacrificial food upon the mountains, and does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her menstrual impurity, Enumerating particular signs of the righteous and of the sinner, the prophet evidently wishes to give as it were a catechistic summary of the most necessary moral rules. He speaks here not from the point of view of an unattainable, though beautiful ideal (cf. for example Isa 33:15), but of what is practically easily realized (cf. Ps 14; Ps 23). Such moral instruction was for the prophet’s contemporaries, who were scarcely beginning their religious and moral reformation and education, more useful than the most elevated morality. With this purpose the traits of the righteous are indicated almost all in the negative. First the acts are mentioned religious, and then ethical. Religious: 1) «Does not eat upon the mountains.» Of the whole rite of sacrifice the final part is singled out, perhaps as the most pleasant and attracting to heathenism or because the earliest sacrifice was eating before the deity as its guest. Sacrifices on the high places were half-heathen: performed, though unlawfully, to Jehovah; for this reason they are named first; 2) «Does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,» that is, in prayer and with hope for help. By the idols of Israel is meant not only the worship of the golden calves but all foreign idols ever worshipped by Israel. So and all that could be required in respect of worship from a captive Israelite: removed from the sanctuary, he could perform almost no religious rites; faithfulness to Jehovah he could show only in a negative way – by removing from idolatry. But thus the field of purely moral obligations was all the wider open before him. From the ethical obligations, those are indicated first which have a close relation to religious ones, namely the observance from any defilement of blood; and such is caused 1) by adultery, 2) by conjugal intercourse at the time of the monthly purification of the wife, – an transgression which in the book of Leviticus is placed on a par with incest, bestiality and sodomy and is punished by cutting off both the guilty ones from the people (Lev 18:19; cf. verses 6–18, 29, Ezek 20:18).
Ezekiel 18:7. and does not rob, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, «Does not rob,» that is, of foreigners, day laborers, the poor, widows. There is meant the decree in Exod 22:21 and following Deut 22:7. «Restores to the debtor his pledge,» that is, if a necessary thing has been pledged, for example, a garment. There is meant the decree in Exod 22:26 and following and the like. – «Does not rob» – an intensification of the preceding thought. After the negative signs of the righteous man are indicated positive traits – charity: «gives his bread...»
Ezekiel 18:8. does not lend at interest or take any increase, withholds his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between man and man, «At interest» – perhaps larger percentages than «increase.» The unconditional prohibition against lending money at interest, often repeated by Moses (Exod 22:25 and others; but Deut 23:20 allows lending at interest to a foreigner), places Hebrew antiquity on a height unattainable for our commercial age. – «Withholds his hand from iniquity» – from all injustice, for example, as is indicated further, from unjust judgment. – «Executes true justice.» Is meant arbitration, where any adult can be a judge.
Ezekiel 18:9. and walks in My statutes and keeps My ordinances, dealing faithfully – he is righteous, he shall surely live, says the Lord God. «Statutes» and «ordinances» see explanation of Ezek 5:6, where the same Hebrew words are translated as «statutes» and «ordinances.» Here by them are meant chiefly all the afore-mentioned obligations. – «Faithfully,» Slavonic: «doing them.» – «Shall surely live» – Slavonic more precisely: «shall live by life.» By «life» is meant, as often in the Old Testament, the aggregate of all goods, but mainly there should be salvation in the impending catastrophe and participation in the future Messianic kingdom.
Ezekiel 18:10. But if he has a son who is violent and a shedder of blood and who does any of these things «A son who is violent and a shedder of blood.» The sharper the opposition between father and son, the stronger will be the proof of the prophet’s thought. – «Does any of these things» – literally: «does one thing of those»; cf. Jas 2:10.
Ezekiel 18:11. (although he himself did none of these things), eats sacrificial food upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, «Did none of these things» – the righteous father. Slavonic: «did not walk in the path of his righteous father.» The enumeration of sins is given further although similar to verses 6–8, but the order is changed, which proves that Ezekiel did not like to mechanically copy his own words, but his speech flowed vividly. At the same time some omissions are made in the former enumeration. Thus the members: «gives his bread...» «covers the naked» do not have corresponding ones in this enumeration (can a shedder of blood do this?); in the third enumeration (verses 15–17), enumerating the properties of the righteous man, these members again are established.
Ezekiel 18:12. oppresses the poor and needy, seizes by force, does not return a pledge, raises his eyes toward idols, commits abominable deeds, “Commits abominable deeds”; perhaps referring to those named at the end of verse 6; cf. Ezek 22:11.
Ezekiel 18:13. lends at interest and takes a fee; will he live? No, he will not live. Whoever commits all these abominations shall surely die; his blood will be on him. “Will he live?” The question points to the entire impossibility of such a supposition. – “His blood,” poured out by him, even if not in the literal sense (for example, by oppressing a neighbor through usury).
Ezekiel 18:14. But if he has a son who, seeing all the sins his father commits, sees them and does not do likewise: The case presented here as a third example is very possible: the father’s lawlessness, seen continually by the son in all its nakedness and especially bearing its just punishment, can sometimes instruct and warn the son. Notably, the prophet allows no middle ground between the righteous person and the lawless; there is no neutral position. – “Sees,” LXX “fears,” which in Hebrew is identical in spelling. Ezek 18:15-17. These verses repeat 6–9 with the omission of less important material (6b) and abbreviation of expressions (8a cf. with verse 17): instead of “returns a pledge to a debtor” – “does not take a pledge,” which is even better (but in the Slavonic: “will not withhold”); instead of “restrains his hand from unrighteousness” – “from oppressing the poor...” though in Slavonic it is the same as verse 8.
Ezekiel 18:18. The father’s sin is as it were erased from the world through his punishment; therefore the son cannot suffer for it. Ezekiel 18:19. You say: “Why does not the son bear the guilt of his father?” Because the son acts righteously and justly, keeps all My statutes and does them; he will live. Ezekiel 18:20. The soul that sins shall die; the son will not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous remains with him, and the wickedness of the wicked remains with him. The moral doctrine of personal responsibility advanced by the prophet so contradicted popular understanding that it was immediately met with astonished questions and required a new insistent exposition of its essence. – “The righteousness of the righteous remains with him,” that is, the fruit, the consequences of it.
Ezekiel 18:21. And if the wicked person turns from all the sins he has committed and keeps all My statutes and acts righteously and justly, he shall live; he will not die. If so far the prophet has proven personal moral accountability through examples of individual persons and generations, now he divides one person (an individual) into separate periods of his life. The same man can be lawless during one part of his life and righteous during another and vice versa. God’s justice remains unchanged here as well, valuing in man what he has finally become. First the prophet takes the case when the lawless person becomes righteous, both because such a case is more possible and more pleasing to him in his zealous pastoral care for the reform of his countrymen.
Ezekiel 18:22. All his transgressions that he has committed will not be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he practices, he will live. “Will not be remembered” – more than “will not be punished”: as if completely erased from God’s memory.
Ezekiel 18:23. Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord God. Is it not rather that he should turn from his ways and live? “The most precious words in the entire book” (Kraetzschmar), “the highest point of Old Testament theology” (Bertholet). Ezekiel rises here to the height of the New Testament view of God’s grace: 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9. This passage teaches us how to understand those seemingly harsh and comfortless views of Ezekiel concerning God’s justice which pervade the entire first part of his book.
Ezekiel 18:24. But if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, practicing all the abominable deeds that the wicked do, will he live? All his righteous deeds that he has done will not be remembered; for the injustice he has committed and the sins he has committed, he shall die. The prophet now considers the opposite, sorrowful case when the righteous person is led astray. His sins cannot fail to bring his destruction; God is not at fault here.
Ezekiel 18:25. But you say: “The way of the Lord is not just.” Hear, O house of Israel! Is My way not just? Are not your ways unjust? He introduces another popular saying that troubles the prophet, as does the related proverb in verse 2 (cf. verse 29; Ezek 33:17): “The way of the Lord is not just.” The way (method of action toward the world) of God seems “unjust” or, as one might translate the Hebrew expression, “inconsistent” (Slavonic: “does not succeed”) only because this way precisely conforms to the human way, responds to evil with its consequence, and changes as the human way changes, as shown in verses 21–24: if a righteous person or sinner changes his way, God also changes his relation toward them. “Just as unwholesome food is a punishment for the weak constitution but pleasant to the healthy, and as light is hateful to those with diseased eyes but pleasant to those with healthy vision, so unrighteousness find God’s righteousness unpleasant, which anyone submitting to does not become troubled” (Augustine). Ezek 18:26-28. Repetition of verses 24 and 21, necessary in view of the new objection against God’s justice raised in verse 25 from another perspective. – “To give life to his soul will return” – he himself, not I. – “Saw.” This is the first step toward repentance: the wicked person pays no attention to himself or to God.
Ezekiel 18:29. And the house of Israel says: “The way of the Lord is not just.” Are My ways not just, O house of Israel? Are not your ways unjust? Verse 25 is repeated with slight variation that conveys more sorrow than indignation.
Ezekiel 18:30. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not become a stumbling block to you. The concluding exhortation begins here, closely connected to the thought of verse 29 and the entire chapter: if the apparent unevenness in divine retribution has its basis not in God but in the inconsistency of human behavior, then let each understand that his fate depends on himself. – “I will judge,” primarily at the time of the imminent catastrophe facing Judah. “So that iniquity will not become a stumbling block to you,” Slavonic: “for torment,” for destruction. If you repent, then all your former sins will not be able to destroy you.
Ezekiel 18:31. Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have sinned, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? “A new heart,” “a new spirit” – see explanation Ezek 11:19; but there, as in Ezek 36:26, God creates them; the present passage shows that this happens not without the participation of man himself, and his participation is as active as God’s. – “Why will you die” cf. Jer 27:13.
Ezekiel 18:32. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God. Turn therefore and live. Ezek 18 verse 23; cf. Lam 3:33.