The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Ver. 20. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.] The innocent son shall not, unless it be in temporals only, and that in some cases. Deuteronomy 24:16 2 Kings 14:6 2Ch 15:4 It was the cruel manner of Uladus, prince of Valachia, together with the offender, to execute the whole family, yea, sometimes the whole kindred. a A like cruelty was used in Scotland by the Pope's appointment upon the kindred of those that had slain David Beaton, in revenge of the death of that butcherly bishop. b Lavater c telleth us here, out of the annals of the Switzers, his countrymen, that when Albertus, the son of Rodolphus Caesar, was slain by his nephew John Hapsburg and some other nobles, his children, Duke Leopold and Agnes Queen of Hungary, put to death not the murderers only, but their children and kinsfolk also not a few, and utterly overturned divers strongholds in Switzerland. But this was not the way of God, nor did it prosper in their hand. Cruelty calleth aloud for vengeance.
The righteousness,] i.e., It shall be well with the righteous, and woe with the wicked. Isa 3:10-11
a Turkish History.
b Acts and Mon.
c Lav. in loc.