Commentary - Ezekiel 18:10-13

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Ezekiel, the Lord is dismantling a cherished and self-serving proverb that the Israelites in exile were clinging to: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge." This was their way of blaming their predicament on the sins of their ancestors, particularly the generation of Manasseh. But God is a God of justice, and He will not allow men to shift the blame for their own rebellion. This entire chapter is a magnificent declaration of individual responsibility before the holy tribunal of God. The soul that sins shall die. It is a simple and stark equation.

The prophet lays out three generational case studies. First, a righteous man who lives. Second, this righteous man has a wicked son who dies. And third, that wicked son has a righteous grandson who lives. Our passage, verses 10 through 13, deals with the second case: the wicked son of the righteous father. God is making it abundantly clear that a father's righteousness is not a spiritual get out of jail free card for a rebellious son. Covenantal standing has profound generational implications, to be sure, but it is not a mechanical or automatic reality that overrides personal guilt and unbelief. Each man stands or falls before his Maker.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel is ministering to the exiles in Babylon. Jerusalem has not yet been completely destroyed, but the first waves of captives have been carried off. The mood among the exiles is grim, and their theology is distorted. They are using the doctrine of generational sin not as a spur to repentance, but as an excuse for their fatalism. They see themselves as helpless victims of their fathers' iniquities. God sends Ezekiel to correct this covenantal confusion.

The book of Ezekiel is a covenant lawsuit, and God is the prosecuting attorney, judge, and jury. He is demonstrating that His judgments are righteous altogether. The exile is not an arbitrary act of a capricious deity; it is the just wage for covenant rebellion. This chapter, then, is a key part of God's legal brief. He is showing that He judges each man for his own deeds. The principle is not that the son is entirely unaffected by the father, but that the son is not punished for the father's guilt. The son is punished for the son's guilt.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 10 “Then he may have a violent son who sheds blood and who does any of these things to a brother..."

The scenario begins. We start with the righteous man from the previous section (vv. 5-9), a man who walked in God's statutes and kept His rules faithfully. But piety in the father does not guarantee piety in the son. The Hebrew for "violent son" is literally a "son who breaks forth," like a robber. This is not a son who just has a few rough edges; he is a lawless man, a man of violence. The first charge is the most severe: he "sheds blood." This is a capital crime, going all the way back to the covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:6). He is a murderer. And notice the target: he "does any of these things to a brother." This highlights the treachery. This is not just violence against a foreign enemy, but against his own kinsman, his covenant brother. It's a Cain and Abel scenario all over again (1 John 3:12).

v. 11 "(though he himself did not do any of these things), that is, he even eats at the mountain shrines and defiles his neighbor’s wife;"

The Lord inserts a crucial parenthetical statement here to drive the point home. The father's righteousness is explicitly cordoned off from the son's wickedness. "He himself", the righteous father, "did not do any of these things." The father's hands are clean. There is no shared guilt here. The son's choices are his own. Then the charge sheet continues, piling up the son's iniquities. He "eats at the mountain shrines." This is idolatry, a direct violation of the first and second commandments. These high places were centers of pagan worship, syncretistic abominations that blended Baal worship with a corrupted form of Yahweh worship. He is a spiritual adulterer. And then, he is a literal adulterer: he "defiles his neighbor’s wife." He violates the sanctity of the marriage covenant, another capital offense under the Mosaic law. This son is a walking, breathing violation of both tables of the law. He fears neither God nor man.

v. 12 "he mistreats the afflicted and needy, commits robbery, does not return a pledge, but lifts up his eyes to the idols and does abominations;"

The indictment continues, focusing now on his social injustices. He is a predator. He "mistreats the afflicted and needy." The law of God is intensely concerned with the protection of the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the poor (Ex. 22:22-24). This man does the opposite; he sees their vulnerability as an opportunity for exploitation. He "commits robbery," taking what is not his by force. He "does not return a pledge." Under the law, if a man took a poor person's cloak as a pledge for a loan, he had to return it by sunset so the man would have something to sleep in (Ex. 22:26-27). This wicked son has a heart of stone; he cares nothing for the well-being of his neighbor. His greed trumps all compassion. And lest we forget the root of this rotten fruit, the prophet reminds us of his idolatry. He "lifts up his eyes to the idols and does abominations." All social injustice flows from a heart that has turned away from the true God. When you worship a false god, you get a false ethic. His life is a cascade of "abominations," a term the Old Testament reserves for the most detestable sins.

v. 13 "he lends money on interest and takes increase; will he live? He will not live! He has done all these abominations; he will surely be put to death; his blood will be on himself."

The final charge is usury, lending at interest to a fellow Israelite, which was forbidden by the law (Ex. 22:25). This was seen as a form of oppression, taking advantage of a brother's need. After this litany of sins, God asks a rhetorical question that expects only one answer: "will he live?" The answer is swift and emphatic: "He will not live!" His father's righteousness cannot save him. His covenant pedigree cannot save him. His own wickedness condemns him. "He has done all these abominations; he will surely be put to death." This is the sentence of the court. Under the civil law of Israel, many of these crimes were capital offenses. But even more, this is a declaration of spiritual death. He is cut off from God. And the final phrase seals his fate: "his blood will be on himself." This is the language of individual culpability. No one else is to blame. He cannot point the finger at his father, or his grandfather, or society. The guilt, the responsibility, and the penalty all rest squarely on his own head.

Application

The central message of this passage is a bracing corrective to our modern therapeutic culture, which is always looking for someone or something else to blame. We want to blame our parents, our upbringing, our environment, our genes. We want to say, "My father ate sour grapes, and that's why my teeth are on edge." And God says, "Nonsense." You are responsible for your own sin. This is not to deny that sin has generational consequences. It most certainly does. A father's sin can create a toxic environment that makes it harder for a son to walk uprightly. But it never removes the son's responsibility to do so. Each man, at the end of the day, answers for his own choices.

For the Christian, this principle of individual responsibility is not nullified but is rather fulfilled and transfigured by the gospel. We are not saved by our own righteousness, for we, like this wicked son, have all done abominations. Our only hope is in a righteousness from outside of us. But here is the glorious exchange: on the cross, Jesus Christ, the perfectly righteous Son, took responsibility for sins He did not commit. Our blood was upon Him. He became the wicked son, so that we, the truly wicked sons, could be counted as righteous. He took our death that we might receive His life.

Therefore, we must not use this text to puff ourselves up in self-righteousness, as though we stand on our own two feet. Rather, we should be driven to our knees in gratitude for the Savior who stood in our place. And then, empowered by His Spirit, we are called to walk in the way of the righteous father described in verses 5-9, not to earn our salvation, but to walk in a manner worthy of it. The soul that sins will die. But the soul that is in Christ, though he was dead, shall live.