Bible Strands
Ezekiel 18:11
though the father has done none of them: Indeed, the son eats at the mountain and defiles his neighbor’s wife.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel speaks to the exiled house of Israel, contrasting a righteous father’s innocence with his violent son’s specific transgressions to establish individual accountability. The declaration follows a hypothetical scenario in Ezekiel 18:10 and precedes a detailed list of the son’s additional crimes in Ezekiel 18:12.
The words — The Hebrew phrase וְה֣וּא אֶת־כָּל־אֵ֔לֶה לֹ֥א עָשָׂ֖ה (ve./hu' et-kol-'eleh lo' asah) literally renders "and he did none of these," using עָשָׂה (asah) to denote active commission. This phrasing isolates the father from the son’s deeds, stressing that guilt attaches only to personal execution.
The thread — The son’s conduct mirrors the prohibited behaviors outlined in Ezekiel 18:6, while the motif of forbidden consumption recalls the narrative warnings in 1 Kings 13:8 and 1 Kings 13:22. These passages collectively map the boundary between lawful obedience and unlawful violation in prophetic and historical texts.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to assess personal responsibility rather than inherit or deflect ancestral guilt. It demands direct acknowledgment that individual actions, not family lineage, determine moral standing before God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour’s wife,
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 13:8 But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.
- 1 Kings 13:22 but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”
- Ezekiel 18:6 He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.
- Ezekiel 18:15 He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.
- Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
- Luke 11:28 But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
- John 13:17 If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
- John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
- Philippians 4:9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
- James 2:17 So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.