Ezekiel 20:11

20:11 I gave them my statutes and revealed my regulations to them. The one who carries them out will live by them!

Ezekiel 20:25

20:25 I also gave them decrees which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

sn The laws were given at Mount Sinai.

tn Heb “the man.”

tn Heb “does.”

tn The wording and the concept is contained in Lev 18:5 and Deut 30:15-19.

tn Or “permitted.”

sn The content of the verse is shocking: that God would “give” bad decrees. This probably does not refer to the Mosaic law but to the practices of the Canaanites who were left in the land in order to test Israel. See Judg 2:20-23, the note on “decrees” in v. 25, and the note on “pass through the fire” in v. 26.

tn The Hebrew term חֻקּוֹת (khuqot; translated “statutes” elsewhere in this chapter) is normally feminine. Here Ezekiel changes the form to masculine: חֻקִּים (khuqim). Further, they are not called “my decrees” as vv. 11 and 13 refer to “my statutes.” The change is a signal that Ezekiel is not talking about the same statutes in vv. 11 and 13, which lead to life.