What does Ezechiel Chapter 18 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Each generation’s own conduct is judged. Conversion and apostasy receive opposite consequences. Penance and a new heart accompany the call to live.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 18 rejects Israel's proverb of fathers eating sour grapes and children's teeth being on edge. All souls belong to the Lord; the soul that sins dies. A just man's specified conduct includes avoiding mountain idol meals, his neighbour's wife and a menstruous woman; wronging nobody, restoring a debtor's pledge, avoiding violence, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked; taking neither usury nor increase, withdrawing from iniquity, judging truly and keeping commandments and judgments. The edition separately explains the Hebrew use of justice for truth.

A violent son who sheds blood and commits even one of the listed offenses, though not all, bears his own blood and dies. His son who sees and fears his father's sins and avoids them does not die for his father's iniquity. Oppression, robbery, failure to restore pledges, idol worship and taking increase remain specifically listed. The passage answers the question about a son's responsibility by reaffirming each person's own justice or wickedness. It does not itself offer a complete doctrine denying every form of inherited guilt.

A wicked person doing penance for all sins, keeping all commandments and doing judgment and justice lives, with former iniquities not remembered. A just person turning to wickedness and abominations dies, with former justice not remembered. The Lord challenges the claim that his way is not right and repeats these contrasting turns. Israel is called to penance, removal of prevarications and a new heart and spirit. The Lord does not desire the death of the dying but calls them to return and live. The kind of death is not narrowed to exclusively spiritual death, nor are all the stated conditions replaced with sincerity alone.

The story inside

Opening: Each generation’s own conduct is judged. Development: Conversion and apostasy receive opposite consequences. Conclusion: Penance and a new heart accompany the call to live.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Each generation’s own conduct is judged.
2
Conversion and apostasy receive opposite consequences.
3
Penance and a new heart accompany the call to live.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 93003–93011
18:2. That you use among you this parable as a proverb in the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge. 18:3. As I live, saith the Lord God, this parable shall be no more to you a proverb in Israel. 18:4. Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.
Lines 93013–93034
18:5. And if a man be just, and do judgment and justice, 18:6. And hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel: and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor come near to a menstruous woman: Not eaten upon the mountains.... That is, of the sacrifices there offered to idols. 18:7. And hath not wronged any man: but hath restored the pledge to the debtor, hath taken nothing away by violence: hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment: 18:8. Hath not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase: hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and hath executed true judgment between man and man: 18:9. Hath walked in my commandments, and kept my judgments, to do truth: he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. To do truth.... That is, to act according to truth; for the Hebrews called everything that was just, truth.
Lines 93036–93048
18:10. And if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that hath done some one of these things: 18:11. Though he doth not all these things, but that eateth upon the mountains, and that defileth his neighbour’s wife: 18:12. That grieveth the needy and the poor, that taketh away by violence, that restoreth not the pledge, and that lifteth up his eyes to idols, that committeth abomination: 18:13. That giveth upon usury, and that taketh an increase: shall such a one live? he shall not live. Seeing he hath done all these detestable things, he shall surely die, his blood shall be upon him.
Lines 93050–93068
18:14. But if he beget a son, who, seeing all his father’s sins, which he hath done, is afraid, and shall not do the like to them: 18:15. That hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife: 18:16. And hath not grieved any man, nor withholden the pledge, nor taken away with violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and covered the naked with a garment: 18:17. That hath turned away his hand from injuring the poor, hath not taken usury and increase, but hath executed my judgments, and hath walked in my commandments: this man shall not die for the iniquity of his father, but living he shall live. 18:18. As for his father, because he oppressed and offered violence to his brother, and wrought evil in the midst of his people, behold he is dead in his own iniquity.
Lines 93074–93087
18:20. The soul that sinneth, the same shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son: the justice of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 18:21. But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. 18:22. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live. 18:23. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?
Lines 93114–93123
18:30. Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin. 18:31. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die, O house of Israel? 18:32. For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live.