32:21 They have made me jealous 5 with false gods, 6
enraging me with their worthless gods; 7
so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, 8
with a nation slow to learn 9 I will enrage them.
32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments 10 at all times.
2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:
they have rejected me,
the fountain of life-giving water, 11
and they have dug cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”
1 tn Heb “and priests serving the
2 tn Heb “went out before.”
3 tn Heb “when you are with him.”
4 tn Heb “he will allow himself to be found by you.”
5 sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.
6 tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”
7 tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).
8 tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).
9 tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”
10 tn This collocation of technical terms for elements of the covenant text lends support to its importance and also signals a new section of paraenesis in which Moses will exhort Israel to covenant obedience. The Hebrew term מִשְׁמָרוֹת (mishmarot, “obligations”) sums up the three terms that follow – חֻקֹּת (khuqot), מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim), and מִצְוֹת (mitsot).
11 tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the