Deuteronomy 32:16

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ¹ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ² 

Deuteronomy 32:21

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.

Deuteronomy 4:25

Threat and Blessing following Covenant Disobedience

4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, ⁸  if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind ⁹  and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 9:18

9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

Deuteronomy 31:29

31:29 For I know that after I die you will totally ¹¹  corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly ¹²  before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.” ¹³ 

[32:16]  ¹ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ² tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:21]  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.

[32:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  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!”).

[32:21]  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).

[32:21]  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.”

[4:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “have grown old in the land,” i.e., been there for a long time.

[4:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “a form of anything.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV “an idol.”

[4:25]  ⁷ tn The infinitive construct is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention, of their actions.

[31:29]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “totally.”

[31:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “do the evil.”

[31:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “the work of your hands.”