Ezekiel 18:3

As I live; saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel I will make such a visible discrimination between the righteous and the wicked, between those that tread in the steps of their forefathers and those who take warning by their examples, that you shall not have any further room to use this proverb among you. God threatens, it must be acknowledged, to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, both in the Old Testament and the New: see Exodus 20:5; Matthew 23:35. But this is to be understood only, 1st, With respect to the temporal punishments of this world, not with respect to the eternal punishments of the next; and, 2d, When the children walk in the wicked steps of their parents, and so by degrees fill up the measure of national iniquity: see notes on Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 31:29, where this matter is more fully explained. “The Scripture takes notice of a certain measure of iniquity, which is filling up from one generation to another, till at last it makes a nation or family ripe for destruction. And although those persons on whom this vengeance falls suffer no more than their own personal sins deserved, yet, because the sins of former generations, which they equal or outdo, make it time for God utterly to destroy them, the punishments due to the sins of many ages and generations are said to fall upon them.” Dr. Sherlock.