What Does 2 Chronicles 25:4 Mean in the King James?
But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse breaks the logic of inherited guilt: family ties do not transfer a person’s missing onto someone else.
THE MEANING
You are not made guilty for another person’s wrongdoing simply because you belong to them. The verse places accountability with the person whose act is in view: a parent’s action does not become a child’s sentence, nor a child’s a parent’s. It draws a line between kinship and responsibility.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Your parents’ wrongdoing is yours to pay for, or your children’s wrongdoing becomes your guilt by inheritance.
THE ROOT
בַּחֲטָאוֹ
baḥaṭṭāʾô
GROWS FROM
ח־ט־א
To miss or fail; in moral use, to sin.
The Hebrew phrase is “in his sin”: the missing belongs to the person who commits it. The father’s or child’s identity does not migrate with the act.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or fail; to sin.
חָטָא
The verb names wrongdoing as an act a person commits, rather than a substance inherited by a family.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; also the offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root can name both the missing and what addresses it, tying accountability to an identifiable breach rather than inherited identity.
THE PATTERN
Responsibility for a person’s wrongdoing stays with the person whose act is named, even within a family.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.THE THREAD
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.This is the law 2 Chronicles invokes. In both, חטא (ḥaṭṭāʾ, “missing” or “sin”) belongs to the person who acts, keeping kinship from becoming transferred guilt.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us