Ezekiel 18:19-20

18:19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer ¹  for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live. 18:20 The person who sins is the one who will die. A son will not suffer ²  for his father’s iniquity, and a father will not suffer ³  for his son’s iniquity; the righteous person will be judged according to his righteousness, and the wicked person according to his wickedness. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 20:18

20:18 “‘But I said to their children ⁵  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ⁶  nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Ezekiel 20:30

20:30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ⁷  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

Jeremiah 16:11-13

16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says, ⁸  ‘It is because your ancestors ⁹  rejected me and paid allegiance to ¹⁰  other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. ¹¹  16:12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ¹²  16:13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

Jeremiah 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ¹³ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ¹⁴ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ¹⁵ 

Malachi 3:7

3:7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ¹⁶  my commandments ¹⁷  and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

Matthew 23:29-33

23:29 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁸  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ¹⁹  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ²⁰  of the righteous. 23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, ²¹  we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 23:31 By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! 23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ²² 

¹ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

² tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

³ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

⁴ tn Heb “the righteousness of the righteous one will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked one will be upon him.”

⁵ tn Heb “sons,” reflecting the patriarchal idiom of the culture.

⁶ tn Or “standard of justice.” See Ezek 7:27.

⁷ tn Heb “in the way of your fathers.”

⁸ tn These two sentences have been recast in English to break up a long Hebrew sentence and incorporate the oracular formula “says the Lord (Heb ‘oracle of the Lord’)” which occurs after “Your fathers abandoned me.” In Hebrew the two sentences read: “When you tell them these things and they say, ‘…’, then tell them, ‘Because your ancestors abandoned me,’ oracle of the Lord.”

⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13, 15, 19).

¹⁰ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the explanation of the idiom.

¹¹ tn Heb “But me they have abandoned and my law they have not kept.” The objects are thrown forward to bring out the contrast which has rhetorical force. However, such a sentence in English would be highly unnatural.

¹² sn For the argumentation here compare Jer 7:23-26.

¹³ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

¹⁴ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

¹⁵ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “turned aside from.”

¹⁷ tn Or “statutes” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “decrees”; NLT “laws.”

¹⁸ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

¹⁹ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

²⁰ tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).

²¹ tn Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).

²² tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”