Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.”
Conditionalists often use Ezekiel 18:4 to support their position of annihilationism. However, the text does not say that the soul that sins will cease to exist. Instead, it says the soul that sins will die. The question is, what is meant by this death? Is it nonexistence, or is it a judgment by God upon the sinner? Of course, this is what the debate is all about.
The first mention of death occurs in Genesis 2:17, where God tells Adam that in the day he eats of the fruit, he will die. Of course, the conditionalists will say that such death means a future, physical death for him. But, contextually, that does work. Furthermore, I can make the case that such death was immediate, even though Adam and Eve were still physically alive after they sinned by eating the fruit. (See the article Annihilationism and Genesis 2:17 and “in the day”)
The word “soul” is נֶפֶשׁ, nephesh, and occurs 754 times in the Old Testament. It is used in different contexts but in our analysis, it relates to people: Gen. 14:21; Ex. 21:23; Lev. 4:2; Josh. 11:11, etc.
In Ezekiel 18:4, the Strong’s concordance word for die, death, dying is H4191, מוּת, mooth. It occurs 842 times in the Old Testament. It is overwhelmingly used in reference to the physical death of people. But, it is also used in reference to the following.
- Animals, Exodus 9:4-6; Exodus 21:35, Lev. 22:8; Num. 20:4
- Deadly object, Num. 35:23
- Fire, Num. 11:2
- Fish, Exodus 7:18, 21; Psalm 105:29
- Frogs, Exodus 8:13;
- Grass, Isa. 15:6;
- Heart, a, 1 Sam. 25:37
- Increase in the house, 1 Sam. 2:33
- Stump, Job 14:8
- Wisdom, Job 12:2
- Worms, Isa. 66:24
I could not find a single instance in all of those 842 occurrences where dying meant annihilation. It just was not there.
So, we can see that Ezekiel 18:4 does not tell us what is the nature of the death is when it says, “The soul who sins will die.” Note that it does not say extinction or continued awareness after death. Since there’s not a single instance of the Hebrew word for death ‘mooth’ (H4191, מוּת) in all of the 842 occurrences in the Old Testament which means human extinction, we cannot conclude that Ezekiel 18:4 supports annihilationism.
