Discovery BoxEzekiel 18:3 
Context18:3 “As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, 1 you will not quote this proverb in Israel anymore!
Ezekiel 18:28
Context18:28 Because he considered 2 and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die.
Ezekiel 18:32
Context18:32 For I take no delight in the death of anyone, 3 declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
Ezekiel 20:25
Context20:25 I also gave 4 them decrees 5 which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.
Ezekiel 33:19
Context33:19 When the wicked turns from his sin and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.
Ezekiel 37:3
Context37:3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.”
1 tn This expression occurs often in Ezekiel (5:11; 14:16, 18, 20; 16:48; 17:16, 19; 20:3, 31, 33; 33:11, 27; 34:8; 35:6, 11).
2 tn Heb “he saw.”
3 tn Heb “the death of the one dying.”
4 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.
5 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.
