What Does Ezekiel 18:14 Mean?
Behold, if he bears a son who sees all shortcomings his father has done, and considers it, and does not do the same,
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
Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all his father’s sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like,THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats “see”: discernment is the hinge between witnessing a parent’s pattern and repeating it.
THE MEANING
You see a parent’s wrongdoing without being compelled to carry it forward. The father’s acts remain his, and your own conduct takes shape in what you do with what you see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what shaped your home has already decided what you will become.
THE ROOT
וַיַּרְא
wayyar’
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look at, or perceive.
“seeth / considereth” in this verse is wayyar’. The Hebrew uses the same root for both “seeth” and “considereth,” so consideration is a second act of seeing. The son perceives his father’s actions and sees them clearly enough not to repeat them.
ALSO GROWS
ra’ah: To see, behold, or perceive.
רָאָה
This is the verb repeated in the verse: seeing the father’s actions becomes more than noticing them.
mar’eh: Appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This related word connects seeing with what comes into view for discernment.
חַטֹּאות
ḥaṭṭō’ot
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss or go astray; in moral use, to do wrong.
“shortcomings” in this verse is ḥaṭṭō’ot. The verse names the father’s wrongs as acts that miss the mark, not as a fate passed to his son. The son sees those acts without making them his own.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeṭ’: Sin, a missing or wrong.
חֵטְא
This noun names the kind of action the son recognizes in his father.
ḥāṭā’: To miss, or to do wrong.
חָטָא
This verb shows that the word for “sins” belongs to a family describing actions, not an inherited identity.
THE PATTERN
Responsibility follows a person’s own actions rather than passing automatically from one person to another.
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.For each one carries his own load.THE THREAD
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God parted the light from the darkness.Genesis uses the same root, ראה (ra’ah, to see or perceive), when God sees the light as good. Here, the son’s repeated seeing becomes discernment that separates his actions from his father’s.
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