a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 18:1-9
Evil manners, we say, beget good laws; and in like manner sometimes unjust reflections occasion just vindications; evil proverbs beget good prophecies. Here is,
I. An evil proverb commonly used by the Jews in their captivity. We had one before (Eze 12:22) and a reply to it; here we have another. That sets God's justice at defiance: "The days are prolonged and every vision fails; the threatenings are a jest." This charges him with injustice, as if the judgments executed were a wrong: "You use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, now that it is laid waste by the judgments of God, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge; we are punished for the…
And the word of the Lord came unto me again, saying. The word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; and its being mentioned is coming from the Lord is to give it weight and authority. This is a distinct sermon or prophecy from the former, and was sent and delivered out at another time.
John Calvin on Ezekiel 18:1-4
Ezekiel 18:1-4
1. The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
1. Et fuit sermo Iehova, ad me, dicendo,
2. What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
2. Quid vobis? vos proverbiantes proverbium [199] super terram Israel, dicendo, Patres comederunt omphacem, [200] et dentes filiorum obstupescunt.
3. As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
3. Vivo ego, dicit Dominator Iehovah, Si erit vobis amplius [201] qui utatur hoc dicterio [202] in Israele.
4. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the…
In the word of God contained in this chapter, the delusion that God visits the sins of fathers upon innocent children is overthrown, and the truth is clearly set forth that every man bears the guilt and punishment of his own sins (Eze 18:1-4). The righteous lives through his righteousness (Eze 18:5-9), but cannot save his wicked son thereby (Eze 18:10-13); whilst the son who avoids the sins and wickedness of his father, will live through his own righteousness (Eze 18:14-20). The man who repents and avoids sin is not even charged with his own sin; and, on the other hand, the man who forsakes the way of righteousness, and gives himself up to unrighteousness, will not be protected from death ev…
The Church Fathers
Heretics, who do not accept the Old Testament, often say in this place against the Creator: How good and just is the God of the Law and the Prophets, who, by remaining quiet and silent about the sins of the fathers, renders punishment to those who have not sinned; rather, what cruelty is in Him that He extends His anger even to the third and fourth generation! To whom shall we respond, and in this the clemency of God the Creator is demonstrated. For it is not of cruelty and severity to hold anger until the third and fourth generation, but a sign of mercy to defer the punishment of sin.
For both this man hath sinned and his parents, but his blindness proceedeth not from that. And this He said, not signifying that though this man indeed was not in such case, yet that others had been made blind from such a cause, the sins of their parents, since it cannot be that when one sinneth another should be punished. For if we allow this, we must also allow that he sinned before his birth. As therefore when He declared, "neither hath this man sinned," He said not that it is possible to sin from one's very birth, and be punished for it; so when He said, "nor his parents," He said not that one may be punished for his parents' sake. This supposition He removeth by the mouth of Ezekiel; "As I live saith the Lord, this proverb shall not be, that is used, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." And Moses saith, "The father shall not die for the child, neither shall the child die for the father."
(Chapter XVIII. — Verses 1, 2.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What is that you turn a parable among you into this proverb in the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge? LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ÷ Son of man, what is this parable in the children of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge? What the Seventy have said, son of man, is not found in Hebrew. However, divine Scripture warns about what was said in Exodus: I am the Lord your God. I am a jealous God, who punishes the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and shows mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments (Exod. X, 5; Deut. V, 9, 10). And again: The Lord descended in a cloud and stood with Moses, and Moses called upon the name of the Lord, and the Lord passed before his face and called him, saying: O Lord, God, merciful and compassionate, patient, full of mercy and true, preserving justice and mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquities, injustices, and sins; and yet he will not cleanse the iniquities of fathers upon children and children's children, to the third and fourth generation (Exod. XXXIV, 5 seq.). Thus, it should be understood as a proverb and a parable, where the words may have one meaning but the sense another; as we mentioned in the parable of the two eagles. And the Lord also in the seventy-seventh psalm says: "I will open my mouth in parables: I will declare a proposition from the beginning" (Ps. LXXVI, 2[1]). And in the Gospel, the parable of the sower, and of the tares, and of the mustard seed, which, though it is the smallest of all seeds, rises up into a large tree (Matt. XIII, 31). He sets them forth in such a way that in the words one thing is presented, and another is held in the meaning. And even until the present day we thought that the two testimonies of Exodus, which we have placed above (Isa. XXIX, 13), were not a parable, but a simple explanation of the meaning. And although we dared not say anything, nor does a clay pot speak against a potter, why did you make me this way, either this way or that: nevertheless, we tolerated the hidden scandal, that the injustice of God seemed to make one person sin and another person suffer for sins.…
Dictionary and topics
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Prophecy · .Ezekiel — .Ezekiel
Responsibility · ACCORDING TO PRIVILEGE — ACCORDING TO PRIVILEGE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The people had been quoting an aphorism, The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste, meaning that innocent children sometimes suffer because of their parents’ actions. In Ezekiel’s context, people were using this proverb to imply that the sins that had brought about the Exile had been committed by their forefathers, while they were paying the price (cp. Lam 5:7).
