Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

JBL 123/2 (2004) 201–218
WHAT LAWS WERE “NOT GOOD”?
A CANONICAL APPROACH
TO THE THEOLOGICAL PROBLEM
OF EZEKIEL 20:25–26
SCOTT WALKER HAHN
shahn@franciscan.edu
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, OH 43952
JOHN SIETZE BERGSMA
jbergsma@nd.edu
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556
Ezekiel 20:25–26 is one of the most infamous interpretive cruxes of the
book of Ezekiel. As Hartmut Gese put it, “Die Auslegung von Ez 20,25f., . . . ist
schon seit den Anfängen alttestamentlicher Wissenschaft als besonders
schwieriges Problem empfunden worden.” 1 In these two verses, the writer of
the book, whom we will call “Ezekiel” without prejudice toward debates about
authorship, makes the shocking claim that the LORD gave Israel “laws that were
not good,” which not only failed to give the people life but actually defiled
them:
!twa amfaw 26 !hb wyjy al !yfp`mw !ybwf al !yqj !hl yttn yna !gw 25
hwhy yna r`a w[dy r`a @[ml !m`a @[ml !jr rfp lk ryb[hb !twntmb
25 Moreover, I gave them laws that were not good and rules by which they
could not live: 26 When they set aside every first issue of the womb, I defiled
them by their very gifts—that I might render them desolate, that they might
know that I am the Lord. [NJPS] 2
1 Hartmut Gese, “Ezechiel 20,25 f. und die Erstgeburtsopfer,” in Beiträge zur Alttestamentlichen
Theologie: Festschrift für Walther Zimmerli zum 70. Geburtstag (ed. Herbert Donner,
Robert Hanhart, and Rudolf Smend; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977), 140.
2 Unless otherwise noted, English biblical quotations are from the NJPS Tanakh.
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