Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
A godly father's prayers and pains cannot compel his son's obedience. The child may have every advantage, instruction, discipline, example, yet still shake off all good and run to robbery and idolatry, becoming the grief of his family and the curse of his generation. Parentage changes nothing in God's reckoning.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 18:10-20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die,.... This is repeated from Eze 18:4, for the further confirmation of it: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; that is, as the Targum paraphrases it, "the son shall not be punished for the sins of the father, nor shall the father be punished for...
Here the Jews object to the prophet's word and in their objection seem to seek a continuance of that very thing which they had originally made a matter of complaint. Therefore translate, "Wherefore doth not the son bear the iniquity of his father?" It now would seem a consolation to them to think the son might suffer for his father's misdeeds; for it would soothe...