Exodus 20

Bible Gateway link Chapter 20

Do the sons bear the sins of the fathers or not?

Yes they do
(Exodus 20:5) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"

(Deuteronomy 5:9) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"

(Exodus 34:6-7) - "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

(1 Cor. 15:22) - "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."


No they don't
A. (Deuteronomy 24:16) - "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."

B. (Ezekiel 18:20) - "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."

Examine the world around you. Sins are passed down. That is why I whole heartedly believe that we should teach our children “Do as I say. Do as I do.” And NOT “Do as I say. Not as I do.”

A man lusts after many women. His children learn the same. A man beats his wife and his children are watching. A woman has no regard for God and her children learn to follow in her footsteps. It is passed down.



Yet each has an internal sense of wrong and right that is only given by God. Each has the choice to step away from their sin by receiving Christ. We can’t get by with saying that we are a wife beater or alcoholic because our father was. We are responsible for our own actions.



We will not be judged for our parent’s sins, but we will be punished if we allow those sins to be passed down to us without repentance.



(side note: As Oprah has sadly mistaken, God is not jealous of you. He is jealous FOR you. No other Gods should be before Him. That is ANYTHING that we put before him.... hobbies, TV, work, etc.)


By Scott Hescht