32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them
because his sons and daughters enraged him.
32:20 He said, “I will reject them, 1
I will see what will happen to them;
for they are a perverse generation,
children 2 who show no loyalty.
32:21 They have made me jealous 3 with false gods, 4
enraging me with their worthless gods; 5
so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, 6
with a nation slow to learn 7 I will enrage them.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,
and it burns to lowest Sheol; 8
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will increase their 9 disasters,
I will use up my arrows on them.
32:24 They will be starved by famine,
eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; 10
I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,
along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.
32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,
and terror will do so inside;
they will destroy 11 both the young man and the virgin,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. 12
I want to make people forget they ever existed.
32:27 But I fear the reaction 13 of their enemies,
for 14 their adversaries would misunderstand
and say, “Our power is great, 15
and the Lord has not done all this!”’
1 tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”
2 tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”
5 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!”).
6 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).
7 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.”
8 tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”
9 tn Heb “upon them.”
10 tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).
11 tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.
12 tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).
13 tn Heb “anger.”
14 tn Heb “lest.”
15 tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”