CCXCVII. This is followed by another found at Ezech. XVIII. 23 and XXXIII. 11

Concerning this will, those things are altogether excellent which God opposes in Ezekiel to the Israelites, who complained on this account¹: that punishments owed to wicked parents were exacted from innocent children. For he says²: “The justice of the just shall be upon him, and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him. But if the impious does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all my precepts and does judgment and justice, living he shall live and³ shall not die.” He would say almost—

—in Jerome’s interpretation⁴: “To such an extent the sins of the fathers do not redound upon the children, neither does a wicked father weigh down a just son, nor are some punished for the crimes of others, that the one and same man who formerly was impious and a sinner, if he afterward does penance and, converted to better things, has blotted out his former sins, is not judged by the antiquity of his sin, but is received into my flock by the renewal of virtue.”

God proceeds⁵, adding: “I shall not remember all his iniquities which he committed; in his justice which he has wrought, he shall live.” But whence is the origin of so great a long-suffering? And whence flows the fountain of so great a benignity? God discloses the origin and fountain⁶ in these words: החפץ אחפץ מות רשע, which the Alexandrians render μὴ θελήσει θελήσω τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἀνόμου, “shall I, willing, will the death of the wicked?” The Vulgate has, “Is the death of the impious of my will?” The Syriac: “I do not delight in the death of the sinner.” And the Chaldean: “Do I, willing, will the death of the impious?” Now, although all these versions agree excellently as regards the sum of the matter, nevertheless the Chaldean represents the force and meaning of the original text more accurately. For since the prefixed ה serves for interrogation, and the verb חפץ, to which קפץ and חפז are near, properly expresses to bend, to incline, and, metaphorically, whether followed by ב⁷ or by the accusative case⁸, denotes to have been inclined, to have been delighted, to have willed, the whole phrase is most fittingly translated: “Do I, willing, will the death of the impious, says the Lord God?” But to what this pertains, although it is perspicuous of itself, nevertheless becomes known more splendidly from the next phrase, which has thus: הלא בשובו מדרכו וחיה, “is it not—”

—that he return⁹ from his way and live?” Therefore, the members so correspond to one another that a universal negative proposition¹⁰ precedes, while a universal affirmative proposition¹¹ follows. The former is thus: “Do I, willing, will the death of the impious?” that is, “I by no means will the death of the impious.” The latter is this: “Do I not delight in his conversion from his way, and he shall live?” that is, “But, willing, I will his conversion from his way, and he shall live.” Theodoret embraces the sentence of each in these words¹²: “I desire not the death of the unjust, but penance; for I created human nature not that I might punish it, but that I might communicate life with it. And deeds give testimony to the words; for he would neither have inspired prophets by his divine power, nor sent apostles, nor handed down written laws, and promised goods and threatened Gehenna, if he desired to punish; rather, he would have permitted men to be borne wherever they willed.”