I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;
- KJV Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
- NKJV “Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live;
- NASB I also gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances by which they could not live;
- NLT I gave them over to worthless decrees and regulations that would not lead to life.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God says He gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live. This sobering verse describes God judicially handing rebels over to ruinous ways. Its precise meaning is debated among faithful interpreters.
Overview
Many understand this as God giving Israel over to the harmful 'statutes' of the pagan nations and their false worship, a judicial abandonment like Romans 1:24-28, where God hands sinners over to their chosen sins. Others see it as the law itself becoming an instrument of death to those who reject it (compare Romans 7:10). Either way, it is a judgment for persistent rebellion, not a flaw in God's good law, and it warns that to spurn God's truth is to be left to destructive lies.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 81:12So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
- Isa 66:4So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”
- Ezek 20:39And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.
- Ezek 20:26And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the LORD.
- Ezek 14:9–11But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the LORD who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.
- Deut 4:27–28Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 2 Th 2:9–11The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
- Deut 28:36The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.
- Rom 1:21–28For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 20:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.