4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, 1 if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind 2 and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, 3
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.
1 tn Heb “have grown old in the land,” i.e., been there for a long time.
2 tn Heb “a form of anything.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV “an idol.”
3 tn The infinitive construct is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention, of their actions.
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.
5 tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”
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!”).
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).
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.”