Job 21:19

Job answers the saying that God stores up a man's guilt to punish his children, insisting instead that the sinner himself should be repaid so he knows it. Justice should fall on the guilty person, not merely his heirs.

Cross-references · 22

• Exod 20:5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
• Ezek 18:19–20“Yet you say, ‘Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he shall surely live.
• Isa 53:4–6Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
• Jer 31:29“In those days they shall say no more, “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
• Isa 14:21Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
• Ezek 18:2“What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
• Rev 18:6Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double.
• Ps 54:5He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.
• Ps 109:9–31Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
• 2 Tim 4:14Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds,
• Rom 2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
• 2 Cor 5:21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• Matt 23:31–35Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
• Deut 32:34“Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
• Ezek 18:14“Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father’s sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;
• Matt 16:27For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds.
• Matt 6:19–20“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;
• Job 22:24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
• Deut 32:41if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
• 2 Sam 3:39I am weak today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.”
• Mal 3:18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
• Gen 4:7If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

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