What Does 2 Kings 14:6 Mean?
But the children of those who struck down he did not put to death, according to what is written in the scroll of the instruction of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers, but each man shall be put to death for his own falling short.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.THE KEY
The death sentence follows the offender’s own act; kinship does not transfer it.
THE MEANING
Responsibility stays with the person who acts: another person’s offense is not charged to you through family ties, and your act is not assigned to a parent or child. Each person’s missing remains their own, and the verse names death as its consequence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a parent’s guilt automatically belongs to a child, or that a child’s offense can be charged to a parent, falls away here.
THE ROOT
בְּחֶטְאוֹ
bəḥeṭʾô
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, go wrong, or commit an offense.
“falling short” in this verse is bəḥeṭʾô. The phrase means “in his own missing”: the offense and its consequence stay attached to the person who acts. The root opens “sin” to the sense of a person’s own misstep, rather than a guilt inherited from someone else.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss, err, or commit an offense.
חָטָא
This verb names the act as belonging to the one who does it.
chet: A missing, offense, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun echoes the verse’s phrasing: the missing is his own.
THE PATTERN
Responsibility follows the person who acts; it is not inherited through family ties.
The fathers shall not be put to death for the sons, nor the sons for the fathers; each man shall be put to death for his own falling short.The living soul that is missing shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor shall the father bear the crookedness of the son; the alignment of the aligned shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.THE THREAD
The living soul that is missing shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor shall the father bear the crookedness of the son; the alignment of the aligned shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.The Hebrew word for “sinneth” comes from חטא, the same root as “his own sin” here. Ezekiel repeats the root while stating plainly that a child does not bear a parent’s iniquity.
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