The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Israel had a saying that blamed their suffering on their parents' sins, and God answers it with a rule: each person answers for his own sin. That raises three questions — what "soul" means here, what death is meant, and whether anyone can ever bear another's guilt.
The complaint that backfires
The people complained that they were paying for their fathers' failures. One commentator shows how the complaint traps the one who makes it:
William KellyAt the captivity God acts on the murmuring of His people. He ends any further dealings with them on the ground of Exodus 34:6-7. From now on He would take them on their own terms. They complained of the hardship of suffering for their fathers' wrongdoing, so He would now give them what they themselves deserved. It is clear that a sinner must suffer for sin. If he challenges the justice of paying the penalty for a parent's evil, he cannot deny that he ought to be punished for his own. All were God's, the souls of fathers and of sons alike; and the sinner must die. There was no relief or escape on any such excuse.
Each reaps what he sowed
The chapter has set a wicked father beside his son. The verse gives the outcome for each:
William KellyThe wicked father must perish. The son warned by his father's example shall live. The way is now clear for the rule — "The soul who sins shall die." The son does not suffer for his father's wrong, nor the father for his son's. Each reaps as he has sown.
Not a contradiction of Exodus
God had said He visits the sins of fathers on their children. One writer points to the words God attached to that warning, and to the oath He swears here:
F. W. GrantHe has assured us Himself that He is "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." But then He adds words that guard against a wrong reading: "of those who hate Me." And elsewhere the Lord strongly condemns the proverb Israel had taken up from just such a wrong reading: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." He not only says it, He swears it. They shall have no reason to use such a proverb. The son shall not bear the father's guilt, nor the father the son's. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked on him. And the repentance of anyone shall turn his doom aside.
What "soul" means here
Readers often take "soul" here as the part of a person that lives on apart from the body. One writer argues that it means the person:
J. N. DarbyTurn to the passage in Ezekiel where this expression comes from. You will see that it has nothing to do with the death of the soul apart from the body. It speaks of a man's death while he lives in this world. Such a use of "soul" for "person" is common now. I say, It is a town of fifteen thousand souls. Who misunderstands me?
The death in view
One writer sets a limit on what this verse can be used to prove:
W. T. P. WolstonGod would deal with each person according to his own conduct. It was not a question of what their fathers had been. Their own sins demanded and would bring down God's judgment... Each one was guilty, and God would judge each one. Yet where He saw repentance, He would pardon, for He had no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Keep in mind that this passage speaks of judgment in this life — physical death now, because of sin. It gives us no teaching about the eternal judgment of sin, which is taught elsewhere.
The one exception
This rule seems to shut the door on anyone dying for anyone else. One writer shows why one Person could:
H. H. SnellThe law of holiness and truth is that the soul that sins, it shall die. Death, then, is God's just appointment for man, because he is a sinner. Man dies only because of sin... The only just way of putting sin away was by death. Clearly no sinful man could die for another's sin, because he must die for himself. The Son of God, on whom death had no claim (because He knew no sin), was able to die for others.
Summary
- Own conduct — each person answers to God for what he himself does, not for what his parents did.
- Own death — the death threatened here is physical judgment now, not teaching about eternity.
- Own excuse — the complaint backfires. If it is unjust to pay for a parent's evil, a man still owes payment for his own.
- Own repentance — God swears that each dies for his own sin. He also promises that repentance turns the sentence aside, for He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
- Not His own — no sinner can die for another, because he already owes his own death. Only the Son of God, who had no death to owe, could die for others.