Deuteronomy 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ¹  with false gods, ² 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ³ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁴ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁵  I will enrage them.

Deuteronomy 32:31

32:31 For our enemies’ ⁶  rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

Deuteronomy 32:1

Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deuteronomy 12:21

12:21 If the place he ⁷  chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he ⁸  has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages ⁹  just as you wish.

Deuteronomy 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ¹⁰  has given you to possess. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 16:13

The Festival of Temporary Shelters

16:13 You must celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters ¹²  for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. ¹³ 

Psalms 115:8

115:8 Those who make them will end up ¹⁴  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ¹⁵  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 10:15

10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. ¹⁷ 

When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

John 2:8

2:8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the head steward,” ¹⁸  and they did.

[32:21]  ¹ 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.

[32:21]  ² tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ³ 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!”).

[32:21]  ⁴ 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).

[32:21]  ⁵ 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.”

[32:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[12:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[16:13]  ¹² tn The Hebrew phrase חַג הַסֻּכֹּת (khag hassukot, “festival of huts” or “festival of shelters”) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is now preferable to the traditional “tabernacles” (KJV, ASV, NIV) in light of the meaning of the term סֻכָּה (sukkah, “hut; booth”), but “booths” are frequently associated with trade shows and craft fairs in contemporary American English. Clearer is the English term “shelters” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), but this does not reflect the temporary nature of the living arrangement. This feast was a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt, suggesting that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.

[16:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “when you gather in your threshing-floor and winepress.”

[115:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”

[10:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”

[10:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”

[10:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “objects of mockery.”

[2:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the master of ceremonies.”