2 Raja-raja 14:5-6

14:5 When he had secured control of the kingdom, ¹  he executed the servants who had assassinated his father. ²  14:6 But he did not execute the sons of the assassins. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, ³  “Fathers must not be put to death for what their sons do, ⁴  and sons must not be put to death for what their fathers do. ⁵  A man must be put to death only for his own sin.” ⁶ 

2 Tawarikh 25:4

25:4 However, he did not execute their sons. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, ⁷  “Fathers must not be executed for what their sons do, ⁸  and sons must not be executed for what their fathers do. ⁹  A man must be executed only for his own sin.” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 31:29-30

The Lord Will Make a New Covenant with Israel and Judah

31:29 “When that time comes, people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children’s teeth have grown numb.’ ¹¹  31:30 Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb. ¹² 

Yehezkiel 18:20

18:20 The person who sins is the one who will die. A son will not suffer ¹³  for his father’s iniquity, and a father will not suffer ¹⁴  for his son’s iniquity; the righteous person will be judged according to his righteousness, and the wicked person according to his wickedness. ¹⁵ 

[14:5]  ¹ tn Heb “when the kingdom was secure in his hand.”

[14:5]  ² tn Heb “he struck down his servants, the ones who had struck down the king, his father.”

[14:6]  ³ tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the Lord commanded, saying.”

[14:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “on account of sons.”

[14:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “on account of fathers.”

[14:6]  ⁶ sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.

[25:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the Lord commanded, saying.”

[25:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “on account of sons.”

[25:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “on account of fathers.”

[25:4]  ¹⁰ sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.

[31:29]  ¹¹ tn This word only occurs here and in the parallel passage in Ezek 18:2 in the Qal stem and in Eccl 10:10 in the Piel stem. In the latter passage it refers to the bluntness of an ax that has not been sharpened. Here the idea is of the “bluntness” of the teeth, not from having ground them down due to the bitter taste of sour grapes but to the fact that they have lost their “edge,” “bite,” or “sharpness” because they are numb from the sour taste. For this meaning for the word see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:197.

[31:29]  sn This is a proverbial statement that is also found in Ezek 18:2. It served to articulate the complaint that the present generation was suffering for the accrued sins of their ancestors (cf. Lam 5:7) and that the Lord was hence unjust (Ezek 18:25, 29). However, Jeremiah had repeatedly warned his own generation that they were as guilty or even more so than their ancestors. The ancestors were indeed guilty of sin but the present generation had compounded the problem by their stubborn refusal to turn back to God despite repeated warnings from the prophets and hence God would withhold judgment no longer (cf. especially Jer 16:10-13 and compare Jer 7:24-34; 9:12-16 (9:11-15 HT); 11:1-13).

[31:30]  ¹² sn The Lord answers their charge by stating that each person is responsible for his own sin and will himself bear the consequences. Ezek 18 has a more extended treatment of this and shows that this extends not just to the link between parents and children but between former behavior and future behavior of the same individual. To a certain extent the principle articulated here is anticipatory of the statement in v. 34 which refers to the forgiveness of former sins.

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

[18:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

[18:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the righteousness of the righteous one will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked one will be upon him.”