Ezekiel 20:25

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Why I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

American King James Version (AKJV)

Why I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

American Standard Version (ASV)

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances wherein they should not live;

Basic English Translation (BBE)

And further, I gave them rules which were not good and orders in which there was no life for them;

Webster's Revision

Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they should not live;

World English Bible

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;

English Revised Version (ERV)

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments wherein they should not live;

Definitions for Ezekiel 20:25

Wherefore - Why?; for what reason?; for what cause?

Clarke's Ezekiel 20:25 Bible Commentary

I gave them also statutes that were not good - What a foolish noise has been made about this verse by critics, believers and infidels! How is it that God can be said "to give a people statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they could not live?" I answer, in their sense of the words, God never gave any such, at any time, to any people. Let any man produce an example of this kind if he can; or show even the fragment of such a law, sanctioned by the Most High! The simple meaning of this place and all such places is, that when they had rebelled against the Lord, despised his statutes, and polluted his Sabbaths - in effect cast him off, and given themselves wholly to their idols, then he abandoned them, and they abandoned themselves to the customs and ordinances of the heathen. That this is the meaning of the words, requires no proof to them who are the least acquainted with the genius and idioms of the Hebrew language, in which God is a thousand times said to do, what in the course of his providence or justice he only permits to be done.

Barnes's Ezekiel 20:25 Bible Commentary

The "judgments whereby they should not live" are those spoken of in Ezekiel 20:18, and are contrasted with the judgments in Ezekiel 20:13, Ezekiel 20:21, laws other than divine, to which God gives up those whom He afflicts with judicial blindness, because they have willfully closed their eyes, Psalm 81:12; Romans 1:24.

Wesley's Ezekiel 20:25 Bible Commentary

20:25 Wherefore - Because they rejected my good laws and judgments.I gave them - Not by enjoining, but by permitting them to make such for themselves. Not good - That were pernicious to the users.