Even Noah, Daniel, and Job Could Deliver Only Themselves

When a land sinneth, four sore judgments

The word: Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it.

Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD. The same limit is repeated through beasts, sword, and pestilence. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant

How much more when he sends his four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that he has brought upon Jerusalem.

They shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD. The examples do not teach that children inherit no social consequences, that sufferers caused disasters, or that later Jewish tragedies were deserved. A remnant's visible life explains that catastrophe to the exiles; it does not license blaming every later wound.