John Calvin Commentary 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." — Deuteronomy 24:16 (ASV)

Here God also reveals how great His regard is for human life, so that blood is not shed indiscriminately, when He forbids children from being involved in the punishment of their parents. Nor was this Law by any means superfluous, because, due to one man’s crime, his whole family line was often severely dealt with. Therefore, it is not without reason that God intervenes for the protection of the innocent and does not allow the punishment to extend beyond where the crime exists. And surely, our natural common sense tells us that it is an act of barbaric madness to put children to death out of hatred for their father.

If anyone should object, based on what we have already seen, that God avenges unto the third and fourth generation, the answer is simple. He is a law to Himself and does not rush by a blind impulse to exercise vengeance, which would confuse the innocent with the reprobate. Instead, He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children in such a way as to temper extreme severity with the greatest equity.

Moreover, He has not bound Himself by such an inflexible rule that He is not free, if He so pleases, to depart from the Law. For example, He commanded the entire people of Canaan to be rooted out, because the land could not be cleansed except by the extermination of their defilements. And, since they were all reprobate, the children, no less than their fathers, were doomed to just destruction.

Indeed, we read that after Saul’s death, his guilt was atoned for by the death of his children (2 Samuel 21), still, by this special exception, the Supreme Lawgiver did not abolish what He had commanded. Instead, He intended for His own admirable wisdom, which is the fountain from where all laws proceed, to be accepted.