462 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
corporate responsiblity for sin (Josh 7:24-26; 1 Sam 22: 16-19; 2 Sam 21:1-9) or
related ideas of inherited guilt and punishment, otherwise termed "delayed ret-
ribution" (Exod 20:5; 34:7; Num 14:18; Deut 5:9; Pss 79:8; 109:14; Job 21:19).
These ideas are all present in Jeremiah (2:5-9; 5: 1-8; 18:21; 32: 18), where one
encounters also the more official view that judgment finally came upon Judah
because of the sins of Manasseh (15:4; cf. 2 Kgs 21:10-15; 23:26-27; 24:3-4).
But continued use of this proverb was not now possible, since the present gen-
eration might have concluded, and did conclude, that as children of transgres-
sors they were not themselves responsible for the sin in question. A corrective
would therefore be necessary, so Jeremiah stated that in days to come this prov-
erb about fathers eating sour grapes and children's teeth being set on edge
would no longer be spoken. All would die for their own iniquity. Ezekiel makes
the point even more emphatically to the exiles, with the one difference that
they are told to change their way of thinking now (Ezekiel 18). Moreover, un-
less the wicked repent, they will be punished just as the previous generation
was. Ezekiel develops the subject of individual responsibility at some length
(Ezek 3:17-21; 14:12-23; 33:1-20). For the Babylonian exiles, the question of
theodicy also arose: people were saying that Yahweh's ways were unjust (Ezek
18:25-29). But Ezekiel said "No," stating for the individual the same doctrine
of divine retribution that Jeremiah gave for the nation after his visit to the pot-
ter's shop (Jer 18:5-10). The later Rabbis took the view that the sins of the
fathers would fall upon the children (only) when the children continued in
their fathers' way (Waldman).
sour grapes. Hebrew baser. The term is a collective meaning "unripe fruit"
(Rashi) or "unripe grapes" (Job 15:33).
and children's teeth become set on edge. The verb qhh in the Piel means "be-
come blunt, dull" (Ecc 10: 10, of an iron tool), the meaning also of the Qal
here and in Ezek 18:2 (BOB; KB^3 ), where reference is to a condition of the
teeth. The LXX verb aimodeo denotes a sensation in the teeth caused by acidic
food. (In Ezek 18:2 the LXX translated qhh with gomphiazo, "to gnash, suffer
pain in the teeth.") The Vg has obstupuerunt ("become senseless, numb"). The
AV's expression, "teeth ... set on edge," occurs earlier in John Wyclif's four-
teenth-century Bible translation (OED 5: 69; M. Greenberg 1983: 327-28), al-
though there it is used to render "cleanness of teeth"(= hunger) in Amos 4:6.
The T paraphrases with "but the children are punished," which is what the
proverb means to convey (v 30).
- But each person in his iniquity shall die. The principle is stated in Deut
24:16: "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor shall the
children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his
own sin." According to Boecker (1980: 37), this law was promulgated in order
to put an end to blood revenge. It was put into practice by King Amaziah of
Judah, who, in avenging the death of his father, put the conspirators to death
but spared their children (2 Kgs 14:5-6; 2 Chr 25:1-4). Ezekiel states as a
principle: "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezek 18:4, 20). The Hebrew here in
the present verse may be elliptical-i.e., the kf >im ("but") may intend a repe-
