" The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
But besides this, God, in his dealings with his own peculiar people, had, on many occasions, caused the children to suffer for the iniquities of their parents. At the general deluge, and at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, the new-born infant suffered no less than the most abandoned parent ; as was the case also when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with all their respective families, went down alive into the depths of the earth. There were instances, also, wherein the offenders themselves had either been removed from this world, and their survivors were left to suffer for their iniquities ; or where the offender himself escaped, whilst others were punished on his account. It was in David's days that a famine of three years was sent to punish Saul's violation of the engagements which, many hundreds of years befoi'e, had been made with the Gibeonitesf: and, for David's numbering of the people, seventy thousand of his subjects were slain, whilst he himself was spared g. Manasseh, too, had been taken to his rest, when for " his iniquities, which the Lord would not pardon," the whole nation of Judah was carried into captivity in Babylon h. And even in the dispersion of the Jewish nation by the Romans, and in all the calamities they have suffered to this time, " on them has come all the blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Bai*achias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar1." The people, who murdered their Messiah, said, " His blood be on us and on our children;" and, verily, his blood has been on their children, even to the present hour.
In truth, constituted as the world is, there is a necessity that the happiness of children should, to a very great extent, depend on their parents. It is scarcely possible but that, both in our civil and social relations, evil should arise from this source ; since the welfare of subjects must, of necessity, be affected by the conduct of their governors ; and the welfare of children by the conduct of their parents.]
But though in some respects this proverb was true, yet, as uttered by them, it was false and impious —
[In this proverb the Jews intended to exculpate themselves, and to cast reflections upon their God. They wished it to be understood that they were not suffering for their own sins, but for the sins of others ; and that God dealt hardly with them, in making them amenable for sins which they had not committed. But, not to mention that a man himself is in some respect
f 2 Sam. xxi. 1,6. e 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, 15.
h 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27. and xxiv. 3, 4. { Matt, xxiii. 35.