Bible Strands
Ezekiel 18:2
“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks to Ezekiel, who relays the message to the people of Israel. The text confronts the populace for actively repeating a specific cultural saying about generational consequences.
The words — מֹֽשְׁלִים (mo.she.Lim) = [are] speaking a proverb, and אַדְמַ֥ת ('ad.Mat) = [the] land of. These terms frame the saying as an official cultural maxim tied to the nation's collective experience.
The thread — Jeremiah 31:29 records the Lord’s promise to end this exact saying. Lamentations 5:7 states the people’s admission that they bear the consequences of their ancestors’ iniquities.
Why it lands — The text demands readers examine whether they blame past generations for present circumstances. It requires acknowledging personal responsibility for one’s own actions rather than accepting inherited guilt as a cultural excuse.
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
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?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 31:29 “In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’
- Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
- Ezekiel 37:11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Ezekiel 37:19 you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick, and they will become one in My hand.’
- Isaiah 3:15 Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Ezekiel 17:12 “Now say to this rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, carried off its king and officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon.
- Ezekiel 37:25 They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.
- Jeremiah 15:4 I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 6:2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.
- Ezekiel 25:3 Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord GOD, for this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile,