Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Jack:

You are assuming that the people in question are innocent. But are they?

First, on an individual level, children often follow in the footsteps of 
their parents, repeating their parents’ error. Thus, when they are 
punished “for their parents’ error” the children have made it their own. (off 
topic, an example of this was the hippies movement in the 
1960s—when talking with parents, I found that most of the youth merely acted 
out what the parents wish they had done.)

Then there is the consequence of parental guilt that affects their children 
and grandchildren, and further. For example, my great-
great-grandfather sold the family estate that had been in the family for 
centuries for a song because of some petty conflict he had 
with a neighbor. My great-grandfather brought his family (my grandfather was 
a child then) to the U.S. hoping for a better life, but my 
father grew up in poverty. The family that bought the estate lived in 
mansions in the old country.

Then there is the question of national punishment where everybody suffers, 
both the innocent as well as the guilty. In the national 
punishment, it refers to the way the nation is heading, not individual 
actions. For example, Japan is not trusted by its neighbors 
because the present generation as a group has never admitted nor repudiated 
Japan’s history from the 1880s through WWII. As a 
result, there is no confidence that Japan won’t slip back into the old ways. 
By not admitting nor repudiating, the present generation is 
seen as sharing the same values that led to previous generations’ atrocities, 
therefore as guilty as their ancestors.

In Numbers 26:11 we read an interesting comment: Qorach led a revolt against 
Moses with the result that he, his confederates and all 
that belonged to them were swallowed up by a fissure that opened in the 
ground. Qorach’s sons had to removed themselves physically 
from their father, showing how they repudiated their father’s action, in 
order to survive. This is an example of the law being followed 
before Deuteronomy 24:16 was given.

2 Kings 14:6, repeated in 2 Chronicles 25:4 merely mention following the law.

Other than national punishment, is there any example of clearly innocent 
people being punished for the guilt of their fathers?

To summarize, we have been handed a propensity to repeat our fathers’ error 
leading us to equal guilt, unless we recognize it and 
repent.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: tladatsi AT charter.net
> 
> Jim et al.,
> 
> The original querry was were there any examples of children
> being punished for the sins of the fathers.  I cited
> several examples where the OT gives commands that the
> children and grand-children of sinners should be punished
> (and two where the punishment extended for 10 generations
> and beyond).  That Ez 18:20 contradicts these commands at a
> later date does not change the fact that the commands were
> given at an earlier date.
>
> Having said that, the citations I gave were conditional
> commands, IF a man committed certain sins, THEN his
> children and grandchildren would be punished.  They are not
> actual examples.  Other correspondents cite Jos 7.  I think
> the clearest example is 2 Sam 21 1-14.  Here two of Saul's
> sons and five of his grandchildren are all killed for
> Saul's crimes against the Gibeonites.  It is as unambiguous
> an example of the 2nd & 3rd generation being punished for
> the sins of the father, as it is an unpleasent story.
> Likewise in 1 Sam 15 the Amalekites are exterminated
> because, accroding to the text,  of something their
> ancestors had done perhaps a few hundreds years eariler.
> (this depends on how one reads the chronology from Moses to
> Saul).
> 
> That Ezikiel would later denouce this practice does not
> mean it did not occur or that it was not commanded to
> occur.
> 
> Jack Tladatsi
-- 
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