46 | AUGUST 24 • 2023 

T

here is, on the face of it, a funda-
mental contradiction in the Torah. 
On the one hand we hear, in the 
passage known as the Thirteen Attributes 
of Mercy, the following words: “The 
Lord, the Lord, compas-
sionate and gracious God, 
slow to anger, abounding 
in loving-kindness and 
truth … but who does not 
acquit the guilty, holding 
descendants to account 
for the sins of the fathers, 
children and grandchildren 
to the third and fourth generation.” Ex. 
34:7
The implication is clear. Children suffer 
for the sins of their parents. On the other 
hand, we read in this week’s parshah: 
“Parents shall not to be put to death for 
their children, nor shall children be put to 
death for their parents. A person shall be 
put to death only for their own sin.” Deut. 
24:16
The book of Kings records a historic 
event when this principle proved decisive. 
“When Amaziah was well-established 
as king, he executed the officials who had 

assassinated his father. However, he did 
not kill the children of the assassins, for 
he obeyed the command of the Lord as 
written by Moses in the Book of the Law: 
“Parents shall not to be put to death for 
their children, nor shall children be put 
to death for their parents. A person shall 
be put to death only for their own sin.” 2 
Kings 14:5-6
There is an obvious resolution. The 
first statement refers to Divine justice, 
“at the hands of Heaven.” The second, in 
Deuteronomy, refers to human justice as 
administered in a court of law. How can 
mere mortals decide the extent to which 
one person’s crime was induced by the 
influence of others? Clearly the judicial 
process must limit itself to the observ-
able facts. The person who committed 
the crime is guilty. Those who may have 
shaped his character are not.
Yet the matter is not so simple, because 
we find Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the two 
great prophets of exile in the 6th century 
BCE, restating the principle of individual 
responsibility in strong and strikingly sim-
ilar ways. 
Jeremiah says: “In those days people will 

no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour 
grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on 
edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their 
own sin; whoever eats sour grapes — their 
own teeth will be set on edge.” Jer. 31:29-
30
Ezekiel says: “The word of the Lord 
came to me: What do you people mean 
by quoting this proverb about the Land 
of Israel: ‘The parents eat sour grapes, 
and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 
As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign 
Lord, “you will no longer quote this prov-
erb in Israel. For everyone belongs to Me, 
the parent as well as the child — both alike 
belong to me. The one who sins is the one 
who will die.” Ezekiel 18:1-4
Here the prophets were not speak-
ing about judicial procedures and legal 
responsibility. They are talking about 
Divine judgment and justice. They were 
giving the people hope at one of the lowest 
points in Jewish history: the Babylonian 
conquest and the destruction of the First 
Temple. 
The people, sitting and weeping by the 
waters of Babylon, might have given up 
hope altogether. They were being judged 
for the failings of their ancestors that had 
brought the nation to this desperate plight, 
and their exile seemed to stretch endlessly 
into the future. 
Ezekiel, in his vision of the valley of 
dry bones, hears God reporting that the 
people were saying, “Our bones are dried 
up, our hope is lost.” (Ezek. 37:11) He 
and Jeremiah were counseling against 
despair. The people’s future was in their 
own hands. If they returned to God, God 
would return to them and bring them 
back to their land. The guilt of previous 
generations would not be attached to 
them.
But, if this is so, then the words of 
Jeremiah and Ezekiel really do conflict 
with the idea that God punishes sins to the 
third and fourth generation. Recognizing 
this, the Talmud makes a remarkable 
statement: “Said R. Yose b. Hanina: Our 
master, Moses, pronounced four [adverse] 
sentences on Israel, but four prophets 
came and revoked them … Moses said the 
Lord punishes the children and their chil-
dren for the sin of the parents to the third 
and fourth generation. Ezekiel came and 

To the Third and 
Fourth Generations

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

