A. Generational sins or generational curses refer to the idea expressed in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:5: “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me” (see also Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; and Deuteronomy 5:9). In other words, the guilt for someone’s sin would pass from one generation to the next. When God would actually execute His punishment on Israel for the generational curse was to be up to Him, not the civil leaders. They were not to punish people for the sins of their fathers. So God explained to them in Deuteronomy 24:16, “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.”