The person who sins will die
18
The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 2 📚“What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?’18:2 Jer 31:29. The exiles evidently thought that the disasters that had come on them were not because of their own sins but because of the sins of their fathers. The tendency of human nature is always to try to shift the responsibility for one’s guilt to other people or to blame one’s fate or circumstances. Compare Gen 3:12-13.⚜
3 📚“As I live, says the Lord God, you will no longer have occasion to use this proverb in Israel. 4 📚See, all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, it will die.
18:4 Here is a great principle of God’s word. God deals with each person individually. All belong to Him and the great issues of life and death are in His just hands. It is true that children are affected by the sins of their fathers and suffer for them (Ex 34:6-7). This is because in some way, in some measure, they share the guilt of their fathers (Rom 5:12-19). But individually they do not suffer the judgment of being suddenly cut off and going to hell because of what their fathers did. In judging people God always takes into account what the individual himself has or has not done (v 30).⚜
5 📚“But if a man is righteous,
and does what is lawful and right,
6 📚And does not eat at the shrines 📖
on the mountains,
or lift up his eyes to the idols
of the house of Israel,
or defile his neighbour’s wife,
or go near a menstruous woman,
7 📚And does not oppress anyone,
but restores the debtor’s pledge
to him, does not commit robbery,
gives his bread to the hungry,
and covers the naked with a garment,
8 📚if he does not lend at usury 📖,
or take increase, withdraws his hand
from evil, administers true justice
between man and man,
9 📚walks in my statutes and keeps
my judgments, to behave faithfully,
he is righteous;
he will surely live, says the Lord God.
18:6-9 Under the law God in grace accepted the righteous acts of individuals because such acts revealed their faith in God, the true desire of their hearts to be right with God, and a proper attitude toward God and His word. Here the righteous life is seen to be both in what a man does not do and in what he does do.⚜
10 📚“If he begets a son who is a robber,
a shedder of blood, or who
does any of these things,
11 📚or who does not do any of those duties,
but eats on the mountains,
and defiles his neighbour’s wife,
12 📚oppresses the poor and needy,
commits robbery, does not restore
the pledge,
and lifts up his eyes to the idols,
commits abomination,
13 📚lends at usury and takes increase,
then will this son live?
He will not live.
He does all these abominations;
he will surely die. His blood will be on him.
18:10-13 A son does not inherit the righteousness of his father. If he lives in sin he will personally be guilty and will die for it.⚜
14 📚Now, see, if he begets a son
who sees all his father’s sins
which he has done, and considers,
and does not do likewise,
15 📚does not eat on the mountains,
or lift up his eyes to the idols
of the house of Israel,
does not defile his neighbour’s wife,
16 📚or oppress anyone, does not withhold
the pledge, does not commit robbery,
but gives his bread to the hungry
and covers the naked with a garment,
17 📚withdraws his hand from the poor 📖,
does not receive usury or increase,
administers my justice, and walks
in my statutes,
he will not die for the guilt of his father;
he will surely live.
18 📚“As for his father, because
he cruelly oppressed others,
robbed his brother, and did what is
not good among his people, see,
he will die in his guilt.
19 📚“Yet you say, ‘Why does the son not
bear the guilt of the father?’
When the son does what is lawful
and right, and keeps all my statutes
and does them, he will surely live.
20 📚The soul that sins, it will die.
The son will not bear the guilt
of the father, and the father will not
bear the guilt of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous
will be on him, and the wickedness
of the wicked will be on him.
21 📚“But if the wicked turns from all the sins
that he has committed,
and keeps all my statutes, and does
what is lawful and right, he will surely live;
he will not die.
22 📚None of the transgressions
that he has committed will be remembered
against him.
Because of his righteous acts,
which he has done, he will live.
18:21-22 Verses 14-20 teach that the evils of one generation may be overcome in the next generation. These verses teach that the evils of one generation may be overcome by the same generation. In either case, a person’s so-called karma has nothing to do with it. Verse 21 speaks of full repentance. Compare Isa 55:7. Verse 22 speaks of forgiveness, the complete blotting out of one’s sins. See Ps 103:12; Isa 44:22; Micah 7:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9.⚜
23 📚Do I have any pleasure at all in
the death of the wicked,
says the Lord God, and not rather
that he should turn from his ways,
and live?
18:23 Verse 32; Ezek 33:11. God is love. He is not keen to punish, but to forgive (Joel 2:13; 2 Pet 3:9). He does not heartlessly, arbitrarily decree the death or the eternal punishment of anyone. Does anything make Him happier than seeing men turn to Him in repentance (Luke 15:7, 10)? He delights in those who turn to Him, who are redeemed and forgiven (Zeph 3:17; Ps 147:11).⚜
24 📚“But when the righteous turns away
from his righteousness,
and does evil, and does according
to all the abominations that the wicked
man does, will he live?
All the righteous acts that he has done
will not be remembered.
Because of the trespass that
he has committed,
and because of the sin that
he has done, because of them,
he will die.
18:24 The meaning here is not that a child of God, saved by God’s grace and given eternal life, can lose eternal life and be lost. That would contradict a verse like John 10:28 and a number of other such verses. Eternal life and eternal death are not in view here in Ezekiel (and rarely in any place in the whole Old Testament). The context is God’s judgment on Israel, the destruction of Jerusalem and many of its people and the exile of others. In those circumstances physical death is viewed as God’s judgment, living means enjoying His favor.⚜
25 📚“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord
is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel,
Is not my way just? Are not your ways unjust?
18:25 Jer 2:29. This shows a tendency in fallen human beings. Unjust themselves they dare to accuse God of injustice.⚜
26 When a righteous man turns
away from his righteousness,
and does evil, and dies in it,
he will die for the evil that he has done.
27 📚Again, when the wicked man
turns away from the wickedness
that he has committed,
and does what is lawful and right,
he will keep himself alive.
28 📚Because he considers and turns
away from all the transgressions
that he has committed,
he will surely live. He will not die.
29 📚Yet the house of Israel says,
‘The way of the Lord is not just.’
O house of Israel, are my ways not just?
Are not your ways unjust?
18:5-29 Illustrations of the truth that God deals with the individual and does not cut him off for what another person has done.⚜
18:26-29 Verses 21-25; Ezek 33:12-20.⚜
God wants everyone to be saved
30 📚“Therefore I will judge each one of you,
O house of Israel, according to his ways,
says the Lord God. Repent,
and turn away from all your transgressions.
Then wickedness will not be your ruin 📖.
31 📚Cast away from you all your
transgressions,
through which you have transgressed,
and make for yourselves a new heart
and a new spirit.
For why will you die, O house of Israel?
18:31 A new heart and new spirit can begotten only by repentance and coming to God Who alone can give them (Ezek 36:26; Ps 51:10).⚜
32 📚For I have no pleasure in the death
of the one who dies, says the Lord God;
therefore turn to me, and live.
18:30-32 A strong and moving appeal to Israel and every individual in the nation to repent. Compare Isa 1:16-19; 19:22; Jer 3:1; 35:15; Hos 12:6-14; Joel 2:12; Matt 3:2; Acts 17:30.⚜
18:32 Verse 23. A great theme of Ezekiel and of the whole Bible.⚜