EXOD32 Don't condemn children because of their parents' misdeeds. Few people will acknowledge acting in so unfair a manner, yet it is very common in traditional Jewish circles to greatly emphasize yichus (lineage) when considering marital prospects for oneself or one's children. Thus, families in which a scandal has occurred often find it difficult to make a match. The Bible repeatedly warns against making a child suffer for a parent's sins. Jeremiah prophesies that a criterion of a better world is that children no longer suffer because of the misdeeds of their parents: "In those days, they shall no longer say, 'Parents have eaten sour grapes, and their children's teeth are set on edge'" Jeremiah 31:29 – 30 [The character of the parents is certainly not an infallible indicator of the child's character. There are few more evil figures in the Bible then the Pharaoh of the opening chapter of Exodus, who decreed the drowning of the male Israelite infants. Yet it was this Pharaoh's daughter who, out of compassion, defied her father's decree and saved the life of the infant Moses. Later the Bible describes King Josiah, who ruled over Judah from 640 to 609 B.C.E. in superlative terms: "There was no king like him before who turned back to the Lord with all his heart and soul and might, in full accord with the teaching of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him" II Kings 23:25. Yet Josiah's father was King Amon, a morally debased figure, and his grandfather was King Manasseh, whom the Bible regarded as singularly wicked, and a man who sacrificed one of his sons in fire II Kings 23:25. Conversely, the Bible relates that the priest Eli, a highly righteous man, raised two sons who were scoundrels I Samuel 2:12-17.] Continued at [[EXOD1040]] Exodus 34:7 TELVOL1 87