申命記 24:16 註釋：Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam & Sforno

לא יומתו אבות על בנים FATHERS SHALL NOT BE PUT TO DEATH על בנים — i.e. by the evidence of their children. But if you say it means “for the sin of their children”, then it would be redundant for it goes on to state “every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Sifrei Devarim 280:1; Sanhedrin 27b).

A few confused souls have inquired how it can be that Scripture asserts fathers must not be put to death ... whereas elsewhere it says “remembering the sins of the fathers ...” [Exodus 20:5], But their question is vacuous. Fathers must not be put to death is a commandment addressed to Israel, whereas “remembering the sins of the fathers” applies to the Rememberer, as I have already explained in its place [comment on Exodus 20:5].

ובנים לא יומתו על אבות. By the courts. This was spelled out in Kings II 14,6 ואת בני המכים לא המית ככתוב לא יומתו וגו', ”But he did not put to death the children of the assassins, in accordance with what is written in Deuteronomy 24,16.” While it is forbidden for human authorities to kill children on account of the sins of their father, G’d reserves the right for Himself to do so, as we know from Exodus 20,4 פוקד אבות על בנים, He requites the sins of the fathers to the children, if they continue in the evil footsteps of their fathers whose punishment G’d had suspended while hoping for their children to redeem their fathers by their exemplary conduct. This principle has been spelled out even more clearly in Ezekiel 18,2 where the prophet had been challenged by the exiles with the question: ‘if the parents ate unripe grapes, why should their children suffer from the resulting diarrhoea?’ They meant that seeing they had been exiled, rejected by their master, G’d, the laws of the Jewish religion should no longer apply to them. The thrust of our verse here is that the court does not have the right to use an innocent child as hostage for the crimes of his father in absentia..

איש בחטאו יומתו EVERY MAN SHALL BE PUT TO DEATH FOR HIS OWN SIN — This suggests: but one who is not yet an איש, a man, does sometimes die on account of his father’s sins: little children sometimes die at the hands of Heaven because of their parents’ sins (Sifrei Devarim 280:3).