Ezekiel 18:5

"But if a man be just and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes unto the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a woman in her impurity, and hath not wronged any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath taken naught by robbery, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; he that hath not given forth upon interest, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity; hath executed true justice between man and man, hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept mine ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord Jehovah."

The distinctions between the righteous and the wicked which are listed here are repeated over and over again in this chapter, with only very slight variations. The critical bias that God cares only for the observance of God's law, and that ceremonial considerations are unimportant was succinctly stated thus by Cooke. "The sins enumerated are moral rather than ceremonial offenses";[8] However, the reference to the righteous man's keeping "all my statutes" in such passages as Ezekiel 18:6,9,11,17,21, cannot possibly support such an error.

Beginning with this paragraph and running through Ezekiel 18:18, "Ezekiel gives a concrete example of the truth announced in Ezekiel 18:4, above. Three generations are presented: (1) a just grandfather; (2) an ungodly son; and (3) a righteous grandson. The three kings of Judah, namely, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah fit the descriptions given here."[9]

"And hath not eaten upon the mountains ..." (Ezekiel 18:6). Such scholars as May and Eichrodt agree that this passage should be translated, "If he doth not eat flesh with the blood."[10] The importance of this lies in the fact that the very first identification mark of the righteous man is that he respects the ceremonial requirements of the Law of Moses. Since the "eating upon the mountains" where the idol worship took place almost certainly involved the use of food improperly prepared, the emended text, as proposed, would appear to be correct. A Biblical mention of the sin of eating flesh with the blood is found in 1 Samuel 14:32-34.

"He that hath not given forth upon interest ..." (Ezekiel 18:8). "The embargo against interest, found here and in passages such as Psalms 15:5 is primarily a reference to charitable loans to persons in distress. (Deuteronomy 23:19f) permitted the charging of interest on loans to non-Israelites."[11]