Deuteronomy 4:6

4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding 1  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise 2  people.”

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.

1 tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

2 tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

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.”