Deuteronomy 24:16
The Lord's justice refuses inherited capital guilt in Israel's courts: each person is accountable for His own sin and must not be executed for another family member's crime.
16 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 LORD's justice refuses inherited capital guilt in Israel's courts: each person is accountable for his own sin and must not be executed for another family member's crime.
Moses commands Israel's covenant courts not to put parents to death for their children or children to death for their parents, but to require that each person bear capital judgment only for his own sin.
Deuteronomy addresses Israel on the plains of Moab before entry into the land. As Moses expounds covenant life for settled Israel, he regulates legal and social practices so that the promised land will not become a place where power, vengeance, or family shame distort justice.
Justice for the Vulnerable and the Limits of Covenant Law
Covenant loyalty to Yahweh demands concrete legal protections for the vulnerable — the divorced, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, and the wage laborer — because Israel was once a slave redeemed by grace.