What Does 2 Kings 14:6 Mean in the King James?
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 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 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.
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 children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.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 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.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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