Ezekiel 18. The Principle of Retribution. From many points of view the imminent doom has been abundantly justified. But on whom will it fall? on the innocent and guilty alike? This chapter proclaims that it will fall only on those whom it overtakes in a state of sin, and that it may therefore be avoided by turning in penitence to God. God is gracious as well as just, and man is free to turn he is bound neither by his ancestry nor by his own past. The chapter is an extreme expression of individualism, in criticising which it has to be remembered (a) that it is a pioneer statement, and (b) that it is addressed to men who imagine that they are hopelessly implicated in the penalties incurred by the sins of former generations.