Ezekiel 18

What is The Meaning of Ezekiel 18?
This is a challenging passage, so we need to take it piece by piece. The passage starts with the Lord asking a question to Ezekiel: “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’?” (Ezekiel 18:2 NASB1995). This Proverb is to speak on the nature of their day, as The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, states: “[the Proverb] means that the children suffer the consequences of the sins of their fathers. Sour or unripe grapes are occasionally eaten, and naturally the effect upon the eater’s teeth is immediate—his teeth are set on edge, lit. blunted, the edge of them turned. Here, however, the effect is first felt by the children. Such feelings could not but arise in the troubled times of the fall of the state, when the righteous suffered with the wicked, and the most righteous were carried into exile, and just because they still slave to their own faith in the midst of heathenism endured severer sufferings than others who accommodated themselves to their circumstances. Soon after the fall of Jerusalem we hear the same complaint in literal terms: “The fathers sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities” (Lamentations 5:7),” (Cambridge).

Dr. Falk also iterates: “Now, this is the illustration is trying to communicate that the Fathers ate so many grapes, and grapes are highly acidic, so what happens is that the acid in the grapes sort of eat at the enamel of your teeth and it makes your teeth feel weird … the idea here is that the children are feeling the consequences of their parent’s sin,” (Falk).

The Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, also notes: “The meaning of the proverb is self-evident. The sour grapes which the fathers eat are the sins which they commit; the setting of the children's teeth on edge is the consequence thereof, i.e., the suffering which the children have to endure. The same proverb is quoted in Jeremiah 31:29-30, and there also it is condemned as an error. The origin of such a proverb is easily to be accounted for from the inclination of the natural man to transfer to others the guilt which has brought suffering upon himself, more especially as the law teaches that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children (Exodus 20:5)” (Keil and Delitzch).

In verse 3, it states: “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore,” (Ezekiel 18:3 NASB1995). The Lord tells us that Israel will not use this Proverb anymore. This is a reference to the coming of the New Covenant, a time when this Proverb no longer is true (Falk). The Lord reiterates that all souls are his, the word “כְּנֶ֧פֶשׁ” meaning soul or essence of a person, their life (Newman 337).

God then brings a contrast. He speaks of a righteous man. He isn’t idolatrous, he does not sleep around, he is overall faithful, he will live (Ezekiel 18:5-9). This man has a son who is unlike his Father. He murders, he sleeps with his neighbor’s wife, and he robs. This man will not live, but he die. (Ezekiel 18:10-13).

Now it must be noted that the Bible does not give the death penalty to a robber; rather, it is said: “If a man gives his neighbor money or goods to keep for him and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, he shall pay double,” (Exodus 22:7 NASB1995). Yet, Ezekiel tells us that they are to die.

We then get to our third example, this son watches the sins of his father and does the opposite. He is faithful: he feeds the hungry, and he follows the ordinances of the Lord. This man will live (Ezekiel 18:14-18).

“The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself,” (Ezekiel 18:20 NASB1995). God tells us anyone who sins will die, but in the Torah, many sins are not punished by the death penalty.

This is because the term “death” is not being used to mean physical death; rather, it is spiritual death (Falk). In the first book of Moses, we see this same concept. Adam and Eve are told by God: “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die,” (Genesis 2:17 NASB1995). Yet, when they eat from the forbidden fruit, they do not die physically; rather, they have died spiritually (Falk). They have rejected God and decided to live their own way rather than according to the rules of God. They were cast out of the sacred garden and fell into sin.

We then read: “But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live,” (Ezekiel 18:21-22 NASB1995). If we were to interpret verse 20 as physical death, how could a person turn from their sins? How did this person get the opportunity to live even though they got the death penalty? Clearly, such an interpretation does not work in the context of the text.

We then are told: “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord God. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live,” (Ezekiel 18:30-32 NASB1995).

This is the Gospel in a nutshell: “so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:15-16 NASB1995).

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” (Acts 3:19 NASB1995).

References:

Brown, Francis, et al. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic. United States, Hendrickson Publishers, 1902.

Dr. Falk, David. Live Stream #152: Good Friday 2024 YouTube, 29 March. 2024, https://youtu.be/6G_FngsHgV8. (2:03:29) Accessed 30 March. 2024.

Image by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1920). Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament. Library of the Union Theological Seminary.

Newman, Selig. An English and Hebrew Lexicon: Composed After Johnson's Dictionary, Containing Fifteen Thousand English Words, Rendered Into Biblical, Or Rabbinical Hebrew, Or Into Chaldee. To which is Annexed a List of English and Hebrew Words the Expressions and Meanings of which Appear to be the Same in Both Languages. United Kingdom, author and sold, 1832.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. United Kingdom, The University Press, 1905.