A short parable or metaphor appears twice in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, though in slightly different forms. Its first occurrence is in the book of Jeremiah, who prophesied largely in Jerusalem leading up to the destruction of the Jewish Temple there by the Babylonians in 587 bc.
In a chapter filled with declarations that God’s continued love for Israel is to be expressed as a new covenant between God and the Hebrew nation, Jeremiah promises that “in those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29, 30).
Although the concept of dying for iniquity (sin) might seem harsh, the overall message of the metaphor—that only one’s own actions can affect oneself—is inexorably toward justice.
