Ezekiel 20:25 · Bible study
Ezekiel 20:25 Commentary: Study: Did God Command Evil? The Hardening Judgment
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Why does God say He gave Israel 'statutes that were not good'? Commentators explain this as judicial abandonment, God permitting, not commanding, evil.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God, as a judgment for Israel’s rebellion, permitted them to follow pagan statutes that led to their destruction, a judicial abandonment, not a command to sin.
- Key words: “I gave”, commentators consistently note the Hebrew idiom meaning “I permitted” or “I abandoned them to” (Clarke, Calvin, Gill, Wesley). No original-language data supplied, but the English translations vary: KJV “I gave them also” vs BSB “I gave them over to”.
- Main debate: Whether the “statutes not good” refer to pagan idolatrous practices (the majority view) or to the Mosaic law itself as a “killing letter” (a view rejected by Calvin and others). The consensus favors the permissive judgment interpretation.
- Theological theme: Divine judgment as abandonment; God’s holiness and justice in response to persistent sin; the severe consequences of rejecting God’s good commands.
- Best use: A warning against hardening the heart through repeated disobedience; a teaching on the nature of God’s judgment as the withdrawal of His restraining grace; a prelude to the gospel where God gives us new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26, 27).
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they couldn’t live.
KJV King James Version 1769
Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances wherein they should not live;
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And I also, I have given to them statutes not good, And judgments by which they do not live.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And I also gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances whereby they should not live;
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Therefore I also gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments, in which they shall not live.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Por eso yo también les dí ordenanzas no buenas, y derechos por los cuales no viviesen;
Por isso eu também lhes dei estatutos que não eram bons, e juízos pelos quais não viveriam;
Je leur donnai aussi des préceptes qui n’étaient pas bons, et des ordonnances par lesquelles ils ne pouvaient vivre.
Darum übergab ich sie in die Lehre, die nicht gut ist, und in Rechte, darin sie kein Leben konnten haben,
Daarom gaf Ik hun ook besluitingen, die niet goed waren, en rechten, waarbij zij niet leven zouden.
E detti loro perfino delle leggi non buone e delle prescrizioni per le quali non potevano vivere;
Dlategoż i Jam im dał ustawy nie dobre i sądy, w których żyć nie będą;
И попустил им учреждения недобрые и постановления, от которых они не могли быть живы,
我 也 任 他們 遵行不 美 的律例，謹守不能 使人活著 的惡規。
And further, I gave them rules which were not good and orders in which there was no life for them;
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree this verse does not mean God directly commanded evil. Adam Clarke explains the Hebrew idiom: ‘God is a thousand times said to do, what in the course of his providence or justice he only permits to be done.’ When Israel persistently rejected God’s good laws, He withdrew His restraint and allowed them to adopt the destructive statutes of surrounding nations, child sacrifice, idolatry, and the like. Calvin similarly says God ‘suffered them to be miserably subjected to an immense heap of errors’ as a form of judgment. Gill notes that the phrase ‘I gave them’ often means ‘I permitted them’, citing parallel texts like Psalm 81:12 where God ‘let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts’. The Cambridge Bible connects this to the specific practice of passing children through the fire (Ezekiel 20:26), a practice God vehemently denied commanding (Jeremiah 7:31). Thus the ‘statutes not good’ are not God’s own commands but the paganesque practices Israel pursued when God abandoned them to their own desires. Wesley states it plainly: ‘Not by enjoining, but by permitting them to make such for themselves.’ The verse describes a judicial hardening, not a divine command to sin.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Permissive judgment view: Commentators overwhelmingly read 'I gave them' as Hebrew idiom for 'I permitted them' or 'I abandoned them to' (Clarke, Calvin, Wesley, Gill). Cross-references: Psalm 81:12; Romans 1:24–28; 2 Thessalonians 2:11.
- Punitive civil laws view: Kimchi and the Targum suggest the 'statutes not good' are the burdensome decrees and tributes imposed by foreign conquerors (e.g., Deuteronomy 28:36). This view is less common among Christian interpreters.
What is clear: God did not command evil or create sin; He used Israel’s existing rebellion as the instrument of their own judgment, withdrawing His restraining grace so that they faced the natural consequences of embracing destructive practices.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Did God command evil? | All major Christian traditions agree that God did not directly command sin; He is holy and cannot contradict His own nature (James 1:13). | Some newer Christian circles have struggled with this verse, reading it as a divine command for child sacrifice. But historic interpreters (Calvin, Clarke, Wesley, Gill) overwhelmingly insist it means God permitted evil, not commanded it. |
| What are the 'statutes not good'? | They are practices that bring death, not life, contrary to God’s own good statutes. The specific example in v. 26 is child sacrifice. | Some (e.g., Jarchi, the Targum) see the 'statutes' as harsh civil decrees imposed by foreign conquerors (tribute, bondage). Others (most Christian commentators) identify them as idolatrous religious practices the people adopted from the nations. Calvin and Gill reject the idea that this refers to the Mosaic law itself. |
| How does judicial hardening relate to God’s justice? | God’s judgment is always just and proportional; He does not create evil but uses human sin as its own punishment. | The mechanism of hardening is understood differently: Reformed traditions emphasize God’s sovereign decree (e.g., Romans 9:18), while other traditions focus on God’s permissive will, He allows humans to pursue the sin they have already chosen. Both affirm God’s justice. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Ezekiel 20 is a sweeping review of Israel’s history, from Egypt to the exile. The elders have come to inquire of the Lord, but the Lord refuses, instead demanding they acknowledge their ancestors’ rebellions. Verses 10, 12 recall how God gave Israel ‘statutes that were good’ at Sinai, laws that promised life. But the people rebelled in the wilderness (v. 13), so God swore to scatter them (v. 23). By verse 25, the situation is reversed: because they refused life-giving statutes, God gave them statutes that brought death.
The specific example follows in verse 26: child sacrifice, ‘causing all that opens the womb to pass through the fire.’ This was a common Canaanite practice, often associated with Molech (Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 23:10). The Mosaic law required the firstborn to be sanctified (Exodus 13:2) but explicitly redeemed, never sacrificed (Exodus 13:13). Yet Israel, influenced by surrounding nations, extended the law of animal sacrifice to include children, believing they were serving Jehovah. The prophets consistently reject this: Jeremiah 7:31 declares that child sacrifice ‘never came into my mind’ (Jeremiah 19:5).
God’s judgment here is not to command such practices but to permit them. He removed His restraining grace, letting Israel reap the consequences of their own choices. This echoes the pattern in Psalm 81:12: ‘So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.’ The cross-references in Deuteronomy 4:27, 28 and 28:36 describe the ultimate outcome: exile and service to ‘gods of wood and stone.’ The verse thus stands as a sobering example of divine judgment as abandonment, God giving people over to the evil they have chosen, leading to their own destruction.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Ezekiel 20:25. The Hebrew text is stable across manuscripts, and the translations consistently render the words as ‘statutes that were not good’ and ‘ordinances in which they could not live.’ The BSB’s translation ‘gave them over to’ reflects an interpretive reading of the Hebrew verb, not a different textual base.
Reception History
In Jewish interpretation, the Targum and medieval commentators like Jarchi and Kimchi understood the verse as God delivering Israel into the power of their enemies or giving them over to their own evil inclinations, ‘I delivered them into the hand of their imagination to stumble at their iniquity’ (Jarchi). Christian interpreters from the Reformation era (Calvin, the Geneva Bible, Gill) developed the doctrine of judicial hardening from this verse, linking it to Romans 1:24, 28 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11. The verse has often been cited in discussions on the nature of divine judgment: does God actively send evil, or does He passively abandon sinners to the consequences of their choices? The consensus across traditions has been the latter; the verse stands as a caution that persistent rejection of God’s good commands can lead to a point where God lets us have our own way, and that way destroys us. It remains a difficult text for those seeking to defend God’s goodness, yet it underscores the seriousness of sin and the patience of God who, even in judgment, works to bring His people to know Him (Ezekiel 20:26).
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God’s good gifts rejected. He gave Israel statutes that were good, leading to life (v. 11). But they chose rebellion.
- Judgment takes the form of abandonment. When they refused His good laws, He let them follow destructive ones. This is not God commanding sin but withdrawing protection.
- The purpose of judgment is restoration. The final goal is that Israel ‘might know that I am Yahweh’ (v. 26). Even in judgment, God works to bring His people to repentance.
Five-point outline
- God’s character: He only gives good laws (Psalm 19:8; Romans 7:12). The problem is human rebellion, not God’s commands.
- Human stubbornness: Israel persisted in rejecting the statutes that gave life.
- Divine judgment: God gave them over to the consequences of their choices, a judicial hardening (Romans 1:24, 28).
- The tragic result: They embraced practices that polluted them and led to death (v. 26).
- The hope beneath the warning: God’s final purpose was not to destroy but to bring them to acknowledge Him.
Illustration hooks
- A parent who keeps bailing their child out of trouble. After repeated warnings, the parent finally lets the child face the consequences, not to hurt them, but to teach them. That painful experience is still love, but it is a severe form of love.
- A doctor who stops treating a patient who refuses all medication. The doctor doesn’t cause the disease; he allows the patient to suffer the natural results of ignoring the prescribed remedy. In a sense, the doctor has ‘given’ the patient over to the illness.
Questions your congregation is asking
- ‘Does God ever tempt me to sin or command me to do evil?’ (No, see James 1:13; this verse is about judgment, not temptation.)
- ‘If God is in control, why does He let people keep sinning even to the point of self-destruction?’
- ‘Can a Christian today be “given over” to sin as a form of discipline?’ (Consider Romans 1; Hebrews 12; 1 Corinthians 11:30.)
Leading a Discussion
This verse stings: God says He gave Israel bad statutes. How can that be? Before you discuss, read Ezekiel 20:10, 26 aloud, noticing the pattern of God’s grace (good statutes), Israel’s rebellion, and God’s judgment (abandoning them to their own ways). The goal is to understand how a holy God deals with persistent rebellion, and what that means for us today.
Discussion questions
- What are the “good statutes” God gave Israel in verses 11, 12? What did they promise? What did they require?
- How did Israel respond to those good statutes? (Verses 13, 21)
- What does the phrase “I gave them statutes that were not good” mean in the context of the whole passage? Does this mean God commanded them to do evil? Why or why not?
- Adam Clarke explains that in Hebrew idiom, God is said to do what He permits. How does that change your understanding of the verse?
- Look up Psalm 81:12 and Romans 1:24, 28. How do these passages help explain the concept of God “giving people over” to sin as a form of judgment?
- What specific practice is in view in Ezekiel 20:26? Why would God allow that as a judgment (see also Jeremiah 7:31)?
- What does this teach us about the seriousness of persistent rebellion? How can we guard against hardening our own hearts when we repeatedly ignore God’s commands?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Deuteronomy 4:27 | Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away. |
| Deuteronomy 4:28 | There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. |
| Deuteronomy 28:36 | Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. |
| Psalms 81:12 | So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels. |
| Isaiah 66:4 | I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them, because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen, but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.” |
| Ezekiel 14:9 | “‘“If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from among my people Israel. |
| Ezekiel 14:11 | that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God,” says the Lord Yahweh.’” |
| Ezekiel 20:26 | I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh.”’ |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
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What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke insists that God never actually gave Israel harmful laws. The verse describes God abandoning them to the ordinances of the heathen after their rebellion. In Hebrew idiom, God is said to do what He merely permits or allows.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin argues that the "laws not good" refer to the pagan superstitions God allowed Israel to endure as punishment for rejecting His good law. This is not, he insists, a criticism of the Mosaic law itself, but a comparison showing that an unteachable people deserved a harsher yoke.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge commentary explains that the "statutes not good" refer to child sacrifice, which God allowed as a judicial punishment for Israel's sins. The people took the law of the firstborn and wrongly extended it to human sacrifice, a practice God never commanded. These evil laws led to their destruction.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
God gave them statutes that were not good as a judgment for their rebellion. These were not His righteous laws but harmful decrees that led to death, showing how He punishes sin by handing sinners over to destructive consequences of their own choices.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill distinguishes carefully between God's own good law and the "statutes not good" mentioned here. He concludes these were not the moral law but rather idolatrous practices or destructive judgments that God permitted Israel to follow as a punishment for their rebellion, leaving them to the ruinous consequences of their own choices.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB sees God giving Israel statutes that were not good as an act of retributive judgment. Because they rejected His good laws, He let them follow their own corrupt ways, which led to their destruction. This punishment exposed the inward unfaithfulness already in their hearts.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch argue that the "statutes not good" are not God's ceremonial law but the people's corrupt perversion of it, such as sacrificing firstborns to idols. God gave these up to judgment as a direct response to Israel's persistent rebellion, showing that the threat of dispersion applied to every generation from the wilderness onward.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry draws attention to the sabbath as a visible sign that God set apart Israel as his own people, a privilege they repeatedly despised. He notes that even after God spared the first generation for the sake of his own reputation, their children fell into the same rebellion, showing how deep their sin ran against such clear grace.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley explains that God did not actively command the harmful statutes but permitted the people to make them for themselves after rejecting His good laws. These self-made ordinances were pernicious to those who followed them.