2. As long as in the primitive process of law the family or the clan was held responsible for the crime of the individual, ancient Israel also adhered to the idea that “God visits the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation,” as Jeremiah still did(946) in full accord with the second commandment. It was in a far later stage that the rabbis interpreted the words “of those who hate Me” in the sense of individual responsibility.(947) Only in accordance with the Deuteronomic law which says: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin,”(948) did the religious consciousness rebel against the thought that a later generation should suffer for the sins of its ancestors, and hence the popular adage arose, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.”(949) It is the prophet Ezekiel who refutes once and for all the idea of a guilt transmitted to children and consequently of hereditary sin and punishment, insisting on the doctrine that personal responsibility alone determines divine retribution.(950) But here a new element affects divine retribution. God’s long-suffering and mercy do not desire the immediate punishment, the death of the sinner. He should be given time to return to a better mode of life.(951) But the great enigma of human destiny, which vexes the author of the seventy-third Psalm and that of the book of Job, still presses for a better solution. It is true that the popular belief and popular legends which are preserved in post-Biblical writings as well, insisted on a justice which requites “measure for measure.”(952) Still insight into actual life does not confirm the teaching of the popular philosophy that the “righteous will be requited in the earth” and that “evil pursueth sinners.”(953) The unshakeable belief in the justice of God had to find another solution for life’s antinomies, and was forced to reach out for another world in which the divine righteousness would find its complete realization.