Passage

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." (Deuteronomy 24:16, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"14. Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy sojourners that are in thy land within thy gates: 15. in his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto Jehovah, and it be sin unto thee."

"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."

"17. Thou shalt not wrest the justice due to the sojourner, or to the fatherless, nor take the widow's raiment to pledge; 18. but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and Jehovah thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing." (Deuteronomy 24:14-18, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"14. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15. In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you."

"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."

"17. You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge; 18. but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing." (Deuteronomy 24:14-18, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: 15. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee. ^{setteth: Heb. lifteth his soul unto it}"

"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."

"17. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge: 18. But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing." (Deuteronomy 24:14-18, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"14. 'Thou dost not oppress a hireling, poor and needy, of thy brethren or of thy sojourner who is in thy land within thy gates; 15. in his day thou dost give his hire, and the sun doth not go in upon it, for he [is] poor, and unto it he is lifting up his soul, and he doth not cry against thee unto Jehovah, and it hath been in thee, sin."

"16. 'Fathers are not put to death for sons, and sons are not put to death for fathers, each for his own sin, they are put to death."

"17. 'Thou dost not turn aside the judgment of a fatherless sojourner, nor take in pledge the garment of a widow; 18. and thou hast remembered that a servant thou hast been in Egypt, and Jehovah thy God doth ransom thee from thence; therefore I am commanding thee to do this thing." (Deuteronomy 24:14-18, YLT)

Synthesis

Deuteronomy 24:16 is the OT's clearest legal statement that capital punishment must be tied to personal guilt, not inherited liability. The verse functions as the load-bearing rebuttal to the standard atheist objection that the God of the OT punishes children for their parents' sins. Set among Deuteronomy 24's laws protecting the vulnerable (the hired worker, the sojourner, the widow), it is part of a cluster of Mosaic statutes that bind Israelite judicial practice to individual moral responsibility. Together with Ezekiel 18 and the prophetic critique of intergenerational punishment, it functions inside the canon as a corrective against any reading of Exodus 20.5 ("visiting iniquity to the third and fourth generation") that would impute guilt downward by blood.

Setting

Speaker: Moses, in the second-law-giving address before Israel enters Canaan
Audience: the Israelite community on the plains of Moab, on the eve of crossing the Jordan
Location: plains of Moab, opposite Jericho
Time period: events c. 1406 BC (Late Bronze); composed and edited c. 1400-600 BC depending on critical view

Theological reading

The verse is part of Israel's judicial code, not a metaphysical denial that consequences ripple through families. The "visiting iniquity" statements in Exodus 20.5 and Numbers 14.18 describe the natural sociological inheritance of sin's effects (children of idolaters tend to become idolaters, and bear the social fallout) and God's covenantal posture toward generational rebellion, not a doctrine that one human can be judicially executed for another's crime. The Deuteronomic code rules out the latter explicitly.

The prophets later make this explicit. Ezekiel 18 is a sustained meditation on the principle: "The soul who sins is the one who will die" (Ezek 18:4, 20). When Israel quotes the proverb "the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge," YHWH through Ezekiel forbids it. The canonical witness is consistent: each person stands before God on the basis of their own moral history, even as sin's consequences (and grace's blessings) propagate through families and nations.

This verse is the structural backbone of the Inherited Guilt and Visiting Iniquity Objection Defeater argument page. It also coheres with the NT doctrine of personal accountability before God (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10) and with the federal-headship reading of Adam and Christ (Rom 5:12-21), which is judicial-representative rather than blood-inheritance.

Key words

H4191 - mut, mut, to die, be put to death; the verb the verse repeats four times to anchor capital justice to personal guilt.

Theological themes

Individual moral responsibility. Capital sentence requires personal guilt, never family blood-liability.
Visiting iniquity vs judicial execution. Exodus 20.5's "visiting iniquity" is sociological inheritance and divine covenantal response, not a license for human courts to execute children for parental crimes.
The OT's internal canonical voice. Deuteronomy itself rules out the practice some critics impute to OT religion; the prophets later make the principle even more explicit.
Federal headship is not blood-inheritance. The Pauline doctrine of Adam-and-Christ representation is judicial-representative; this verse is consistent with that framework.

Cross-references

Ezekiel 18, the prophetic extended exposition of personal accountability.
Exodus 20.5, "visiting iniquity"; read with this verse, not against it.
Numbers 14.18, the same divine character formula appears here.
2 Kings 14.6, Amaziah cites Deut 24:16 to spare the children of his father's assassins; case-law application.
Jeremiah 31.29-34, the new-covenant version of the same principle, anticipating Ezekiel 18.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.