Are Children Punished for Parents' Sins?

Introduction

Vexing Moral Issues

Two famous passages from the Decalogue¹ and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy² use virtually identical language to describe Hashem's methods of administering justice:³

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עשרת הדברות (שמות כ':ה'-ו')	שלוש עשרה מידות (שמות ל"ד:ו'-ז')
לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי ה' אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ אֵ-ל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבֹת עַל בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָי. וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָי.	וַיַּעֲבֹר ה' עַל פָּנָיו וַיִּקְרָא ה' ה' אֵ-ל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת. נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה וְנַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים וְעַל בְּנֵי בָנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים.

Decalogue (Shemot 20:5-6)	13 Attributes of Mercy (Shemot 34:6-7)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, Hashem, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of parents on children, on third generations, and on fourth generations, of those who hate Me, but doing kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.	And Hashem passed over before his face, and called: 'Hashem, Hashem, the God of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness and truth, maintaining kindness to thousands, forgiving iniquity, and wickedness, and sin, yet not acquitting entirely, visiting the iniquity of parents on children, and on grandchildren, on third generations, and on fourth generations.'

Both of these verses describe how the sin of parents is ultimately followed by the punishment of their descendants. As they give no explicit indication that the children sinned⁴ or that the parents receive any punishment,⁵ these texts ostensibly lead one to the conclusion that Hashem defers the dispensation of justice and punishes innocent generations of the sinner's descendants in place of the sinner himself. This understanding, while supported by various other Biblical passages,⁶ raises several troubling theological questions:⁷

• Familial collective punishment – Do these verses advocate a form of collective punishment in which innocent children suffer for sins which they didn't commit?⁸
• Intergenerational collective punishment – While collective punishment generally expands the scope of the punishment horizontally to include others alive at the time of the infraction,⁹ these passages extend it vertically to subsequent generations. But why should later generations pay the price for crimes that they might not have even been alive to witness?¹⁰
• Vicarious punishment – Even collective punishment only widens the circle of those punished, but does not absolve the sinner. Yet, in the above verses the Torah seems to imply that the sinner himself will escape personal harm¹¹ and will be punished only vicariously through his descendants. How does this manifest Divine justice?

Contradictory Texts

The principles of deferred, collective, and vicarious punishment implied by the above passages appear to place them in direct conflict with several other Biblical texts:

• Devarim 7:10 states that Hashem immediately metes out justice to the sinner himself.¹²
• Devarim 24:16 commands that children are not to be put to death for the sins of parents, but rather each person should be held responsible for their own actions.¹³
• Yirmeyahu 31:28-29 prophesies how when Hashem redeems the Children of Israel, it will no longer be said that children are penalized for the sins of parents.
• Yechezkel 18 describes in unequivocal terms the system of Divine justice, according to which only the sinner is punished, and no son is held liable for the wickedness of his father.¹⁴

What is the relationship between the two texts from Shemot¹⁵ and these four other Biblical texts? Can all of these passages be harmonized? Must any of them be reinterpreted? Does Hashem employ contrasting principles of justice in different situations? Is there a distinction between the Divine and human judicial systems? Is it possible that Hashem's doctrine of justice changed at some point in history, and if so, why?

The Historical Record

There are many cases in Tanakh which reflect the fulfillment of various facets of the principle of "פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים":

• Deferred punishment of the sinner – In the cases of the Golden Calf¹⁶ and the generation of the Spies,¹⁷ punishment was postponed but ultimately meted out to the sinners themselves.
• Familial collective punishment¹⁸ – In the stories of Datan and Aviram and Amatzyah the priest of Beit El, it appears that Hashem punished their children along with them.¹⁹ In the instances of Akhan²⁰ and Yavesh Gilad, the Israelites seemingly kill children along with the guilty parents.²¹
• Intergenerational collective punishment – In the cases of Eli and Geichazi,²² Hashem ostensibly punishes them and all of their future descendants.²³
• Immediate vicarious punishment – In the examples of David and Batsheva and Chiel Beit HaEliYehoshua 6:26Melakhim I 16:34,²⁴ Hashem kills the children instead of the parents.²⁵
• Intergenerational vicarious punishment – In the cases of Yorovam, Achav,²⁶ Chizkiyahu, and Menashe,²⁷ the Divine punishment for their actions is realized only during future generations.²⁸ The same is true in the story of Shaul's descendants and the Givonim, in which punishment is exacted from Shaul's descendants after his death.

One of the challenges is to explain why the principle is implemented in so many different ways. When is the punishment delayed and when is it exacted immediately? Why in some cases is just the sinner himself penalized, in others only his descendants pay the price, and in additional ones both the sinner and his offspring are punished? And what determines whether the punishment will be visited upon the second generation, the fourth generation, or upon all future generations for eternity?

¹ The text below is from Shemot 20. In the parallel verses in Devarim 5:9, there are three small orthographic differences (all related to the letter "ו") in the words "אָבוֹת",‎ "וְעַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים", and "מִצְוֹתָו".

² The text below is from Shemot 34 where the Attributes are first transmitted to Moshe. A condensed version appears in Moshe's prayer in Bemidbar 14:18, where "אֵ-ל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן",‎ "וֶאֱמֶת",‎ "נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים",‎ "וְחַטָּאָה",‎ and "וְעַל בְּנֵי בָנִים" are all omitted, while the central theme remains intact.

³ There are also some noteworthy discrepancies between these two passages:

1. Shemot 20 contains the qualifying terms of "לְשֹׂנְאָי" and "לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָי" which do not appear in Shemot 34.
2. Shemot 34 adds "נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה וְנַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה".
3. The context of Shemot 20 is the sin of idolatry, and thus the description there of how Hashem punishes precedes the description of how He rewards. In contrast, the focus of Shemot 34 is mercy and forgiveness, and the order of Hashem's attributes is reversed.
4. Shemot 34 inserts "וְעַל בְּנֵי בָנִים" in the middle of the list of punished generations (Bemidbar 14, though, reads like the Decalogue).

⁴ The question of whether also the children sinned hinges, at least in part, on whether "לְשֹׂנְאָי" (which appears only in Shemot 20 and not in Shemot 34) refers to the parent, his offspring, or both.

⁵ Cf. "וְשַׂמְתִּי אֲנִי אֶת פָּנַי בָּאִישׁ הַהוּא וּבְמִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ" in Vayikra 20:5, and see Approaches for HaMeamerVayikra 20:5About R. Meir Wolf's interpretation. Exegetes who claim that also the parents are punished in the verses in Shemot would maintain that the point of these verses is to emphasize God's wrath in exacting retribution not just from the sinner but also from his descendants. Whether "פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת" constitutes an attribute of mercy or vengeance will be discussed in Approaches.

Additional questions which impact the understanding of these verses include:

1. Do the terms "אָבוֹת" and "בָּנִים" refer to individual sinners or to successive generations of the entire nation?
2. What form of penalty do the descendants receive, and is this really more of a punishment for their parents?
3. Does the principle of justice presented in these verses apply across the board or only to specific sins?
4. Is the punishment visited upon all subsequent generations or only upon the fourth generation?

⁶ There are a number of different categories of verses:

1. For children being punished for the sins of their parents, see Vayikra 20:5 regarding the Molekh worshipper and his family, Yeshayahu 14:21, Yirmeyahu 32:18, and Eikhah 5:7. In the latter three passages, it is certainly possible that the children are being punished in place of their parents, and see Approaches for HaMeamerVayikra 20:5About R. Meir Wolf's interpretation of the verse in Vayikra.
2. For children being punished both for the sins of their parents as well as for their own sins, see Vayikra 26:39-40, Yeshayahu 65:7, Yirmeyahu 14:20, Tehillim 109:14, Daniel 9:16, Nechemyah 9:2.
3. For the possibility that the terms "כרת" and "ערירי" refer to the death of the sinner's descendants, see Karet.
4. For Biblical stories which reflect the implementation of deferred, collective, and vicarious punishment, see below.

⁷ These difficulties are inherent in the transferring of the punishment to the descendants, not in the mere deferring of the punishment. To some extent, they are a specific subset of the larger questions of "צדיק ורע לו" and "רשע וטוב לו", and many of the approaches overlap. Cf. the Talmud BavliBerakhot 7aAbout the Bavli which utilizes those formulations in this context.

⁸ Even if "לְשֹׂנְאָי" implies that the sinner's family continues in his path, this would only explain why they should be punished for their own sins, and would not explain their being punished for the actions of their ancestor.

⁹ In some cases the logic may be that the community bears responsibility for abetting or at least not preventing the culprit from committing the crime. For more, see Collective Punishment.

¹⁰ It is possible to interpret the verses of "פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת" as saying that punishment is limited only to the generations who are alive during the lifetime of the sinner, but it is difficult to say that in all cases four generations were alive at the time of the sin.

¹¹ See Shemot 34:7 which states that Hashem is "נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה" before describing the punishment of subsequent generations.

¹² It is noteworthy that Devarim 7:9 which speaks of the reward for the righteous is almost identical to the Decalogue.

¹³ This question is posed by the Midrash TannaimDevarim 24:16About Midrash Tannaim and Talmud BavliBerakhot 7aSanhedrin 27bAbout the Bavli.

¹⁴ This question is the backdrop for the statement in Bavli MakkotMakkot 24aAbout the Bavli that Yechezkel annulled the Torah's principle of "פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת".

¹⁵ This question applies equally to the collection of assorted Biblical texts cited in the note above which also imply the existence of collective or vicarious punishment.

¹⁶ The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy were first given in the context of the atonement for this sin. See also the similar language of "וּבְיוֹם פָּקְדִי וּפָקַדְתִּי עֲלֵהֶם חַטָּאתָם".

¹⁷ While the generation of the Exodus perished over the course of the forty years in the wilderness, Bemidbar 14:37 implies that the Spies themselves died immediately. There is room to question whether the forty years in the wilderness was a punishment more for the generation which perished (but lived out their lives) or for their children who had to sit and wait out the process.

¹⁸ For cases of general collective punishment or destruction which do not specifically target family members, see Collective Punishment.

¹⁹ This is indicated by Bemidbar 16:27-33 and Devarim 11:6. In contrast, Bemidbar 26:11 states explicitly that the sons of Korach did not perish, and Korach's descendants later become prominent Levites. Regarding Korach, Ramban and Ralbag emphasize that no innocent family members perished.

²⁰ This appears to be the simple reading of Yehoshua 7:24-25. However, many commentators reinterpret these verses. See Bavli Sanhedrin 44a that the children were only brought to witness the execution, and see Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38 and Radak Yehoshua 7:15Yehoshua 7:15About R. David Kimchi who say that the children were killed only because they were complicit in the crime. For more, see Exegetical Approaches and Akhan's Children.

²¹ See also Exegetical Approaches for the dispute regarding the case of the עיר הנדחת.

²² However, see RadakMelakhim II 5:27About R. David Kimchi who says that only the sons of Geichazi who had abetted his actions were punished, and not their descendants.

²³ In Shemuel II 3:29, David calls for Yoav's household to be similarly punished.

²⁴ The death of the sons is not explicit in these verses, but is implied by context.

²⁵ See also David's Census where the nation is punished for the sin of its leader. R. Saadia, however, attempts to reinterpret this episode – see Exegetical Approaches.

²⁶ In this case, while the full implementation of the punishment is deferred, Achav himself is punished – see Melakhim I 22:35-38.

²⁷ See also Melakhim II 21:10-15 and Yirmeyahu 15:4.

²⁸ See also the need for the delayed punishment of the Amorites in the Covenant of the Pieces.