Ezekiel 20:25

I also gave ¹  them decrees ²  which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

De 4:27,28; De 28:36; Ps 81:12; Isa 66:4; Eze 14:9-11; Eze 20:26,39; Ro 1:21-28; 2Th 2:9-11

¹ 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.

² 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.