Deuteronomy 24:16

Hebrew Bible

14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. 15 You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 16 Fathers must not be put to death for what their children do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin. 17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this.

Jeremiah 31:30

Hebrew Bible

28 In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished and brought disaster. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. I, the Lord, affirm it! 29 “When that time comes, people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children’s teeth have grown numb.’ 30 Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb. 31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord.

 Notes and References

"... The principle is stated in Deuteronomy 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, 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 Kings 14:5-6; 2 Chronicles 25:1-4). Ezekiel states as a principle: 'The soul that sins shall die' (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). The Hebrew here in the present verse may be elliptical - i.e., ('but') may intend a repetition of ('they shall say') in verse 29, since its constructions introduce new declarations in 7:32; 16:14-15; and 19:6. Schoneveld's reading here is, 'But they will say, "Each person in his own iniquity shall die."' According to this interpretation, people in future days will speak a new proverb in place of the old one. See also 3:16b-17, where another new declaration will replace an old one in future day ..."

Lundbom, Jack R. Jeremiah 21-36: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (pp. 462-463) Doubleday, 2004

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