Ezekiel 18:19,20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? God here puts into the prophet's mouth what he knew the Jews would object (at least in their minds) to the foregoing declarations, namely, that they would deny what the prophet had said on this head, and would appeal to facts and experience that the son did bear the iniquity of the father; so that the sense of the first clause of the verse is, Why do you affirm this? does not experience show that the son bears the iniquity of the father? Is it not plain and undeniable, notwithstanding your fine discourse to the contrary? To be sure, we feel the truth of it in our own cases. To this cavil God makes answer in the following words, affirming that this was no otherwise so than when the son followed the example of his father's iniquity; for that, when the son did that which was lawful and right, and kept God's statutes, or lived a life of true piety and virtue, he should surely live, that is, should not be punished, or cut off, on account of the iniquity of his father. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him That is, the righteous shall receive the reward of his righteousness. And the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him That is, the reward of his wickedness. As certainly as it shall be well with the righteous, because he shall eat the fruit of his doings, so certainly shall woful punishment be executed upon the wicked who persist in their wickedness: see Isaiah 3:10-11.