No nation punished
for the sin of another
Thus, according to
the biblical view, the righteous man shares in the sin of the community and is
punished for this sin (even if it is not a personal sin) along with the entire
community. Also, he may be punished for the iniquity of his fathers by reason
of the association of sin and punishment encompassing generations, and because
his punishment is accounted punishment of his fathers.
But we do not find in
Scripture the idea of responsibility without association in the collective sin.
The members of the community are responsible one for the other, but they are
not liable for sin and punishment except on the basis of community association.
The sons suffer for the sin of the fathers; but they do not bear the guilt of
the fathers of other men. Subsequent generations of a people are punished for
the sin of their nation but not for the sin of a foreign people. The idea that
one community sins and another is punished in its stead is completely foreign
to Scripture. There is nothing in the biblical idea of retribution (and in the
moral sentiment generally) to support the idea that Israel or the children of
Ammon or Moab are punished because the Philistines or the Pathrusim or the
Casluhim sinned. Accordingly, there is no reason to seek in Isa. 53 the absurd
idea that the sins of the nations brought the punishment of exile on Israel. (Yehezkel
Kaufmann, The Babylonian Captivity and Deutero-Isaiah [History of the Religion
of Israel Volume IV; New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1970], 143-44)
