Deuteronomy 32:18-25

32:18 You have forgotten ¹  the Rock who fathered you,

and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

A Word of Judgment

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, ² 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ³  who show no loyalty.

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁴  with false gods, ⁵ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁶ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁷ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁸  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ⁹ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

32:23 I will increase their ¹⁰  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ¹¹ 

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 ¹²  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

[32:18]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”

[32:20]  ² tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ³ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[32:21]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.”

[32:22]  ⁹ 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.”

[32:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:24]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ¹² tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.