The soul that sins shall die: See the comments on Ezek 18.4. New Century Version renders this clause well, saying “The person who sins is the one who will die.”

The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son: None of the actions in verses 20-32 are gender-specific, as was the case in verses 5-19. So we recommend that translators do not retain the focus on men in these verses, but use more general words that refer to both men and women. Therefore son may be translated “child” or even “person,” and father may be translated “parent.” A helpful model for this sentence is “Children won’t suffer for the sins of their parents, and parents won’t suffer for the sins of their children” (Contemporary English Version).

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself: The Hebrew words rendered righteousness and righteous come from the same root as the word for “right” in the previous verse. The righteous refers to good people, those who obey God’s laws (see Ezek 18.5). The Hebrew words for wickedness and wicked come from the same root. The wicked refers to evil people, those who do not follow God’s laws (see 3.18). Good News Translation provides a helpful model for this sentence, saying “Good people will be rewarded for doing good, and evil people will suffer for the evil they do.” Another possible model is “God will reward good people for the good things they do, and he will make evil people suffer for the evil they do.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .