Deuteronomy 24:16 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers— See what we have said respecting this subject on Exodus 20. It is supposed by some, that there was a law in Moses's time, among the AEgyptians, or other neighbour nations, that relations should suffer for the crimes of relations. Thus Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, that by the law of the Persians, in the case of desertion, and some other crimes, the whole kindred perished for the guilt of one, ob noxam unius, omnis propinquitas perit. So we read in Quint. Curt. lib. vi. c. 11. that among the Macedonians, the relations of those who plotted against the king's life were put to death as well as themselves; on the contrary, king Amaziah is praised for not putting to death the sons of his father's murderers; agreeably to this law of Moses, as well as to that maxim of common equity, that, as faults are personal, so ought the punishment to be. See Grotius de Jure B. & P. lib. ii. c. 21