Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 18:2
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
2. concerning the land ] Rather, in the land, lit, upon: cf. Eze 18:3 “in Israel.”
fathers have eaten ] Or, the fathers eat; the proverb being thrown into a general form. The proverb, already noticed by Jeremiah (ch. Jer 31:29-30) means that the children suffer the consequences of the sins of their fathers. Sour or unripe grapes are occasionally eaten, and naturally the effect upon the eater’s teeth is immediate his teeth are set on edge, lit. blunted, the edge of them turned. Here, however, the effect is first felt by the children. Such feelings could not but arise in the troubled times of the fall of the state, when the righteous suffered with the wicked, and the most righteous were carried into exile, and just because they still slave to their own faith in the midst of heathenism endured severer sufferings than others who accommodated themselves to their circumstances. Soon after the fall of Jerusalem we hear the same complaint in literal terms: “The fathers sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities” (Lam 5:7).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Concerning the land of Israel – Rather, in the land of Israel, i. e., upon Israels soil, the last place where such a paganish saying should be expected. The saying was general among the people both in Palestine and in exile; and expressed the excuse wherewith they ascribed their miserable condition to anyones fault but their own – to a blind fate such as the pagan recognized, instead of the discriminating judgment of an All-holy God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?] We have seen this proverb already, Jer 31:29, &c., and have considered its general meaning. But the subject is here proposed in greater detail, with a variety of circumstances, to adapt it to all those cases to which it should apply. It refers simply to these questions: How far can the moral evil of the parent be extended to his offspring? And, Are the faults and evil propensities of the parents, not only transferred to the children, but punished in them? Do parents transfer their evil nature, and are their children punished for their offences?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
What cause have you, or what would you have men think of your carriage to me, and of mine towards you, that ye who are now in Babylon openly, unjustly, and impudently justify yourselves, and condemn your God?
Israel; the two tribes, not the ten.
The fathers; our forefathers have sinned, and we their children, who were unborn, do suffer now for their sins: and this was grown common, both in Babylon, and also in Jerusalem, Jer 31:29; you would be thought innocent, and my proceedings against you unjust and cruel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. fathers . . . eaten sour grapes,. . . children’s teeth . . . set on edgeTheir unbelievingcalumnies on God’s justice had become so common as to have assumed aproverbial form. The sin of Adam in eating the forbidden fruit,visited on his posterity, seems to have suggested the peculiar form;noticed also by Jeremiah (Jer31:29); and explained in La 5:7,”Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne theiriniquities.” They mean by “the children” themselves,as though they were innocent, whereas they were far from being so.The partial reformation effected since Manasseh’s wicked reign,especially among the exiles at Chebar, was their ground for thinkingso; but the improvement was only superficial and only fostered theirself-righteous spirit, which sought anywhere but in themselves thecause of their calamities; just as the modern Jews attribute theirpresent dispersion, not to their own sins, but to those of theirforefathers. It is a universal mark of corrupt nature to lay theblame, which belongs to ourselves, on others and to arraign thejustice of God. Compare Ge 3:12,where Adam transfers the blame of his sin to Eve, and even to God,”The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, shegave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel,…. This is spoken to the Jews in Babylon, who used the following proverb concerning the land of Israel; not the ten tribes, but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, concerning the desolation of the land, and the hardships the Jews laboured under, since the captivity of Jeconiah, and they became subject to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar: this expostulation with them suggests that they had no just cause, or true reason, to make use of the proverb; that it was impious, impudent, and insolent in them, and daring and dangerous; and that they did not surely well consider what they said. The proverb follows:
saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? that is, as the Targum explains it,
“the fathers have sinned, and the children are smitten,”
or punished, as the ten tribes for the sins of Jeroboam, and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin for the sins of Manasseh; hereby wiping themselves clean; and as if they were innocent persons, and free from sin, and were only punished for their forefathers’ sins, and so charging God with injustice and cruelty; whereas, though the Lord threatened to visit the iniquity of parents upon their children, and sometimes did so, to deter parents from sinning, lest they should entail a curse, and bring ruin upon their posterity; yet he never did this but when children followed their fathers’ practices, and committed the same sins, or worse; so that this was no act of unrighteousness in God, but rather an instance of his patience and long suffering; see
Jer 31:29.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) What mean ye?Almost the same expression occurs in Eze. 12:22. The literal translation would be, What is it to you who are using this proverb? and the sense is Why do you, &c.? Proverb shows that it was a common saying, a way in which the people habitually sought to shirk the responsibility for their guilt. The same proverb is quoted in Jer. 31:29, and condemned in the same way. Concerning the land should rather be in the land, i.e., among the people, including both those at Jerusalem and in captivity. The teaching of this chapter concerning individual responsibility is, in one form or another, often repeated by Ezekiel. It is set forth in regard to the prophet and people, in Eze. 3:18-21; in regard to those upon whom the mark was set, in Eze. 9:4-6; in regard to those who enquire of the Lord, in Eze. 14:3-9; and generally the teaching of this chapter is repeated in Eze. 33:1-20.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“What do you mean that you use this proverb about the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live,” says Yahweh, “you will not have occasion to use this proverb in Israel any more.”
The coming lesson on individual responsibility is opened by taking a popular proverb and rebutting it. Like all proverbs it contained truth when taken rightly, but was misleading when take wrongly. It is always true that our children to a certain extent suffer for our failures, as well as benefiting from our successes, that we are all to a certain extent what we are because of our backgrounds. But when this becomes fatalism, suggesting that we cannot escape the round of fate, it becomes dangerously misleading. In the end we are what we choose to be.
The idea of corporate sin is an example of this. There is a sense in which we are responsible for the activities of our families and communities, if we go along with them without protest, and seek to do nothing about them. If we share in their attitude, we share in any judgment made on them. But in the end, God tells us, we are each responsible for our own behaviour and actions. We are accountable as individuals. And that is how we will finally be judged.
This applied very much to the exiles. They looked back and to a large extent blamed their present situation on their ‘fathers’ (Lam 5:7). ‘Our fathers have sinned and are no more, and we have borne their iniquities’. And they had some justification for this. (Compare Exo 20:5; Exo 34:7; Num 14:18; Deu 5:9). But they now had to be faced up with the fact that in the end their fate depended on themselves, and that it was their own sin which was the cause of present judgment. See Eze 3:16-21; Eze 14:12-20; Eze 33:1-20; Deu 24:16; 2Ki 14:6.
There is a significant contrast here with the use of the similar proverb by Jer 31:29. There Jeremiah was looking ahead to the coming age when the new covenant would be established. Then, he said, individual responsibility will be clearly established. But through Ezekiel God says that that time is now. We must not just wait for the future, He says, we must recognise that there is a need for full response to God even now.
That lesson is important. While Ezekiel too looked forward to the coming age, he also very much emphasised that what was true then could be true now. Would men then receive the Spirit? They could receive the Spirit now (Eze 18:31 compared with Eze 36:26). Would they be changed then? They could be changed now. While each age has its different emphases, God’s way of deliverance through faith in His mercy and forgiveness, and God’s gracious activity on behalf of His own through His Spirit, have not changed. Salvation has always been, and will always be, by faith through grace (Eph 2:8), as a result of the activity of His Spirit, and as a result of God’s own provision of a means of propitiation and reconciliation. It was just as true then as now.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 18:2. What mean ye, &c. See Jer 31:28; Jer 31:40.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 18:2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
Ver. 2. What mean you? ] Or, What is come to you? – quoe vos dimentia cepit? – that you do so toss this sinful and senseless proverb among you, both at Jerusalem Jer 31:29 and also here at Babylon.
“ Delicta parentum
Immeritus Iudaeae luis? ”
Must I be blasphemed rather than you faulted? Is it for your fathers’ sins only that ye suffer? And do ye thus think to put off the reproofs of the prophets, as if yourselves had not seconded and outsinned your fathers, and are therefore justly punished?
The fathers have eaten sour grapes.
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.] Or, Stupefied. But is there not a cause? and are there not sins enough with you, even with you, to procure your ruth and your ruin? but that I must be injurious rather than you be found obnoxious?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the land = the soil. Hebrew. ‘admatk. See note on Eze 11:17. The fathers, &c. Compare Jer 31:29, Jer 31:30.
children’s = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
mean: Eze 17:12, Isa 3:15, Rom 9:20
the land: Eze 6:2, Eze 6:3, Eze 7:2, Eze 25:3, Eze 36:1-6, Eze 37:11, Eze 37:19, Eze 37:25
The fathers: Jer 15:4, Jer 31:29, Jer 31:30, Lam 5:7, Mat 23:36
Reciprocal: Lev 26:39 – and also Job 40:2 – he that reproveth Eze 12:22 – what Eze 16:44 – every Eze 18:29 – General Hos 7:13 – spoken Jon 1:6 – What Act 21:13 – What
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 18:2. What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel With respect to the desolations made in it by the sword, famine, and pestilence. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge The present generation is punished for the offences committed by their forefathers, particularly for the sins committed in the time of Manasseh, king of Judah: see 2Ki 23:26; Jer 15:4. The Jewish people were very prone to plead their innocence, however great their crimes were.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18:2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, {a} The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
(a) The people murmured at the chastising of the Lord, and therefore used this proverb meaning that their fathers had sinned and their children were punished for their transgressions. See Geneva “Jer 31:29”