Ezekiel 18:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
What mean you, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
American King James Version (AKJV)
What mean you, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
American Standard Version (ASV)
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Why do you make use of this saying about the land of Israel, The fathers have been tasting bitter grapes and the children's teeth are on edge?
Webster's Revision
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
World English Bible
What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
English Revised Version (ERV)
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
Definitions for Ezekiel 18:2
Clarke's Ezekiel 18:2 Bible Commentary
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? - We have seen this proverb already, Jeremiah 31:29, etc., and have considered its general meaning. But the subject is here proposed in greater detail, with a variety of circumstances, to adapt it to all those cases to which it should apply. It refers simply to these questions: How far can the moral evil of the parent be extended to his offspring? And, Are the faults and evil propensities of the parents, not only transferred to the children, but punished in them? Do parents transfer their evil nature, and are their children punished for their offenses?
Barnes's Ezekiel 18:2 Bible Commentary
Concerning the land of Israel - Rather, "in the land of Israel," i. e., upon Israel's soil, the last place where such a paganish saying should be expected. The saying was general among the people both in Palestine and in exile; and expressed the excuse wherewith they ascribed their miserable condition to anyone's fault but their own - to a blind fate such as the pagan recognized, instead of the discriminating judgment of an All-holy God.
Wesley's Ezekiel 18:2 Bible Commentary
18:2 The land of Israel - The two tribes, not the ten.The fathers - Our fore - fathers. Have eaten - Have sinned.The childrens - We their children, who were unborn, suffer for their sins.