What Does Ezekiel 18:14 Mean in the King James?
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 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 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.
“sins” 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 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.For every man shall bear his own burden.THE THREAD
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided 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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