Chapter 18, one of the most famous chapters in Ezekiel, gives priestly decisions (torah) on questions that had become especially pressing because of the people's situation. Though sometimes misinterpreted as a charter of religious individualism, chapter 18 makes two distinct points: (1) 18,1-20 teaches that one generation will not have to suffer for the sins of a previous generation, contrary to an older view preserved in Exodus 20,5. "For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, infllicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation"' (2) 18,21-28 teaches that past sins do not encumber a person currently leading a good life. These teachings were provoked by a fashionable proverb of the time, "Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children's teeth are on edge." The proverb implicitly accused God of punishing the innocent descendants of wicked forbears. The prophet denies any "vertical" guilt (between generations) but insists on "horizontal" guilt, that is, the present generation must bear its own guilt. The people are not simply victims of someone else's sin.
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