Yechezkel 20:25

25 Therefore I gave them also chukkot that were not tovim, and mishpatim whereby they could not live;

Yechezkel 20:25 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:25

Wherefore I gave them also statutes [that were] not good
Yea, were very bad; not the moral law, and the statutes of it; for that is holy, just, and good, though the killing letter and ministration of condemnation and death to the transgressors of it; indeed those laws were both good and bad to different persons, as Abendana observes; good to those that observed them, but not good to those that transgressed them, the issue of which was death: rather these were the statutes and rites of the ceremonial law, which were not in their own nature good; nor did they arise from the nature and holiness of God, but from his will; and though very good and useful under the legal dispensation, until the Messiah came, especially when attended to by faith, and with a view to him; yet had the sanction of death to many of them, that a man could not live by them: but it may be, the punishments inflicted on them for their sins, by the plague, by fire, and by serpents, are meant; which may be called "statutes" and "judgments", because ordered and appointed by the Lord, and according to justice: or, as many, both Jews and Christians, think, the idolatrous laws, usages, and customs of other nations, the traditions of their fathers, their wicked laws and statutes, and their own; which, being left to a reprobate mind, they were suffered to walk in, to their hurt and ruin; which is sometimes the sense of the word give; and so here, he "gave", that is, he permitted them to observe such statutes; and this sense is countenanced and confirmed by ( Ezekiel 20:26 ) ; to which agrees Jarchi's note,

``I delivered them into the hand of their imagination (or corrupt nature) to stumble at their iniquity;''
see ( Romans 1:28 ) . Kimchi interprets them of laws, decrees, tribute, and taxes, imposed upon them by their enemies that conquered them. The Targum is,
``and I also, when they rebelled against my word, and would not obey my prophets, cast them far off, and delivered them into the hands of their enemies; and they went after their foolish imagination, and made decrees which were not right:''
and judgments, whereby they should not live;
yea, which were deadly and destructive to them; which brought ruin, destruction, and death upon them; for more is designed than is expressed: this was the effect of following the customs of the nations, and of walking in the statutes of their fathers, and of their own; whereas, had they walked according to the judgments and statutes of God, moral and ceremonial, they had lived comfortably and prosperously.

Yechezkel 20:25 In-Context

23 I lifted up Mine yad unto them also in the midbar, that I would scatter them among the Goyim, and disperse them through the countries;
24 Because they had not executed My mishpatim, but had despised My chukkot, and had profaned My Shabbatot, and their eynayim were after the gillulim of their fathers.
25 Therefore I gave them also chukkot that were not tovim, and mishpatim whereby they could not live;
26 And I pronounced them tameh (unclean) because of their own [ritual] gifts, in that they caused to pass through the eish all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Hashem.
27 Therefore, ben adam, speak unto Bais Yisroel, and say unto them, Thus saith Adonoi Hashem: Yet in this avoteichem have made gidduf (blasphemy) against Me, in that they have been ma’al (unfaithful) to Me.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.