1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“What is wrong with you, who recite this proverb on the soil of Israel, saying:
and the sons’ teeth were blunted.
3By My life, said the Master, the LORD, there shall be none reciting this proverb in Israel. 4Look, all lives are Mine, the life of the father and the son alike are Mine. The person offending, it is he shall die. 5And should a man be righteous and do what is just and right, 6he did not eat on the mountains nor lift his eyes to Israel’s foul things, and he did not defile his fellow man’s wife nor was intimate with a menstrual woman. 7And no man did he wrong; what is pawned in debt he returned; he did not rob; his bread he gave to the hungry and the naked he covered with clothes. 8He did not lend with advance interest nor accrued interest. He pulled his hand back from wrongdoing; he enacted true justice between one man and another. 9By My statutes he walked, and My laws he kept to act in truth. He is righteous, he shall surely live, said the Master, the LORD. 10And should he beget a brutish son, who sheds blood, and who does none of these things, 11and he did none of these things but ate on the mountains and defiled his fellow man’s wife, 12wronged the poor and the needy, robbed, did not return what was pawned and to the foul things lifted his eyes—abomination he did. 13He lent with advance interest and took accrued interest. He surely shall not live—all these abominations he did. He is doomed to die, his bloodguilt is upon him. 14And look, should he beget a son who sees all the offenses of his father, sees and does not do the like, 15on the mountains he does not eat nor does he lift his eyes to the abominations of the house of Israel. He does not defile his fellow man’s wife, 16nor does he wrong any man. He takes nothing in pawn, nor does he rob. His bread he gives to the hungry, and the naked he covers with garments. 17He draws his hand back from harming the poor, neither advance interest nor accrued interest does he take. He performs My laws, in My statutes he walks. He shall not die for his father’s crime—he shall surely live. 18As for his father, should he have committed fraud, robbed a brother, and what was not good should have done among his people, look, he shall die for his crime. 19And should you say, ‘Why does the son not bear the crime of the father?’ When the son has done justice and righteousness and kept My statutes and performed them, he shall surely live. 20The offending person, it is he who shall die. The son shall not bear the father’s crime, and the father shall not bear the son’s crime. The righteousness of the righteous man shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked man shall be on him. 21And the wicked man who turns back from all his offenses that he did and keeps all My statutes and does justice and righteousness, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22All his wrongs that he did shall not be recalled against him. Through his righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23Do I really desire the death of the wicked, said the Master, the LORD, and not instead his turning back from his ways, that he may live? 24And when the righteous man turns back from his righteousness and does wrong like all the abominations that the wicked man did, will he do this and live? All his righteousness that he did shall not be recalled for him when he betrays and in his offense that he commits. For them he shall die. 25And should you say, ‘The way of the Master does not measure up,’ listen, pray, house of Israel. Does My way not measure up? Why, your way does not measure up! 26When the righteous man turns back from his righteousness and does wrong, he shall die for it. For his wrong that he has done he shall die. 27And when the wicked man turns back from his wickedness that he has done and does justice and righteousness, he shall preserve himself in life. 28And if he sees and turns back from all his trespasses that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29And should the house of Israel say, ‘The way of the Master does not measure up,’ do My ways not measure up? Why, it is your ways that do not measure up! 30Therefore each according to his ways will I judge you, O house of Israel, said the Master, the LORD. Turn back altogether from your trespasses, and they shall not be a stumbling block of crime for you. 31Fling away from you all your trespasses that you have committed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I do not desire anyone’s death, said the Master, the LORD, but turn back and live.”
CHAPTER 18 NOTES
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2. The fathers ate unripe fruit / and the sons’ teeth were blunted. This phrase is also quoted in Jeremiah 31:28, attesting to its circulation as a popularly invoked saying. Most translations read “unripe grapes,” with little warrant, for the term can mean any unripe fruit. Presumably, the hardness of the unripe fruit is what blunts the teeth (and that would scarcely work for grapes). The proverb as Ezekiel quotes it reflects the absurdity of thinking that the sons suffer for the crimes of the fathers because, obviously, no one could suffer the ill effects of someone else’s imprudence in biting down on unripe fruit.
6. he did not eat on the mountains. Since the clause that immediately follows mentions idolatry, the reference here is almost certainly to a sacrificial feast that was part of a pagan cult.
he did not defile his fellow man’s wife. The prophet moves without transition from cultic transgressions to sexual ones. In the next verse, he will go on to the economic wrongs, making all three categories part of a single package.
8. advance interest nor accrued interest. The first term, neshekh, has the literal sense of “bite”: hence, a chunk taken out from the loan extended. The second term, tarbit, etymologically suggests compounding or multiplying.
9. By My statutes he walked, and My laws he kept. Like a good many other phrases in this chapter, all this will be repeated. Repetition appears to be part of the prophet’s rhetorical strategy of didactic insistence in conveying the message that each person is solely responsible for the consequences of his acts.
10. who does none of these things. In the Hebrew, there is an intrusive ʾaḥ, “brother,” which is almost certainly a mistaken scribal duplication of the two middle consonants in the word that immediately follows, meʾeḥad, “one of.”
11. he did none of these things but ate. The wording is somewhat confusing, especially after the last clause of the previous verse. It is possible that a negative before the verb has been dropped out in the previous verse.
15. on the mountains he does not eat. The repetitiousness is especially pronounced here and through to the end of verse 17.
20. bear the . . . crime. This Hebrew idiom clearly means “bear the consequences of the crime.” In fact, ʿawon, “crime,” is often used interchangeably for “punishment” as well.
22. All his wrongs that he did shall not be recalled against him. This element of Ezekiel’s doctrine of divine justice surely addresses the condition of his audience of exiles. According to theological principle, their plight of exile is a consequence of their evil acts, and the prophet has been insistently castigating them for their behavior. But a person who turns away wholeheartedly from his misdeeds will qualify for God’s protection.
24. And when the righteous man turns back from his righteousness. The system is symmetrical: just as the wicked man has the power to reverse his fortunes, the righteous man can undo all the merit he has earned by slipping from the straight and narrow path to do evil.
25. does not measure up. There has been some dispute among interpreters about the meaning of the verb yitakhen. The clear biblical sense of this verbal stem is “to measure.” (Compare Isaiah 40:12: “and the heavens has gauged [tiken] with a span.”) The idea seems to be that in the eyes of Israel, God’s way makes no sense, has no good measure.
31. Fling away from you all your trespasses that you have committed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. A vivid image informs this sentence: a person’s trespasses weigh down on his very body—the Hebrew literally means “fling away from upon you.” Once this weight of evil acts is flung away, a person can regenerate from within, making a new heart and spirit for himself.
32. anyone’s death. More literally, “the death of him who dies.”