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Ezekiel 18:1-32 open_in_new
God's Equity vindicated
The popular view of Israel's calamities, as expressed in a current proverb, was that they were the punishment of the sins of former generations. Though there was a measure of truth in this, the proverb was used in a false and mischievous sense. It led the present generation to ignore their own sin, to doubt the justice of God's providence, to despair of escape from the working of a blind fate. Ezekiel, consequently, emphasised in the strongest way the truths of individual responsibility, and of God's impartiality in dealing with every man according to his own character (Ezekiel 18:1-4). If a man is righteous he shall live (Ezekiel 18:5-9). If a righteous man has a wicked son, the son will not be saved by his father's righteousness, but will die (Ezekiel 18:10-13). If this wicked man, in turn, has a righteous son, the latter will not die for his father's sin, but will live (Ezekiel 18:14-18). Further, a wicked man who repents and becomes righteous will live (Ezekiel 18:21-22; Ezekiel 18:27-28), and a righteous man who becomes wicked will die (Ezekiel 18:24; Ezekiel 18:26). All this is unquestionably just, and God does not wish any to die, but appeals to all to forsake sin and live (Ezekiel 18:19-20; Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 18:25; Ezekiel 18:29-32). This chapter recalls Ezekiel 3:17-21, and the teaching of both passages is repeated in Ezekiel 33:1-20.
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Ezekiel 18:2 open_in_new
The fathers, etc.] The same proverb is quoted and refuted in Jeremiah 31:29; Jeremiah 31:30.
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Ezekiel 18:4 open_in_new
All souls are mine] God deals directly with every one, and not with the son through the father.
It shall die] 'Die' and 'live' are used in the sense explained under Ezekiel 3:18.
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Ezekiel 18:6 open_in_new
Eaten upon the mountains] shared in an idolatrous meal at a high place.
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Ezekiel 18:7 open_in_new
Restored.. his pledge] see Exodus 22:6; Deuteronomy 24:12.
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Ezekiel 18:22 open_in_new
Mentioned unto] RV 'remembered against': so in Ezekiel 18:24.
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Ezekiel 18:24 open_in_new
Ezekiel does not raise the question whether a truly righteous man could thus fall away. He assumes that a man's final conduct expresses his real and final character.