And against whom was God ¹  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ² 

The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. ¹  He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors ²  and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ³  because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. ⁴ 

The prophet Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord the message predicting the downfall of Baasha and his family because of all the evil Baasha had done in the sight of the Lord. ¹  His actions angered the Lord (including the way he had destroyed Jeroboam’s dynasty), so that his family ended up like Jeroboam’s. ² 

He passed his sons through the fire ¹  in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. ²  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him. ³ 

That is what will result from your making me angry by what you are doing. ¹  You are making me angry by sacrificing to other gods here in the land of Egypt where you live. You will be destroyed for doing that! You will become an example used in curses ²  and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth. ³ 

He stretched out the form ¹  of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind ²  lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem ³  by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue ⁴  which provokes to jealousy was located.

But the Lord took note and despised them because his sons and daughters enraged him.

Yet they continued to sin against him, and rebelled against the sovereign One ¹  in the desert.

Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, ¹  for anger resides in the lap ²  of fools.

And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, ¹ 

But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites’ land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot’s descendants ¹  as their possession.

You thoroughly defeated Edom ¹  and it has gone to your head! ²  Gloat over your success, ³  but stay in your palace. Why bring calamity on yourself? Why bring down yourself and Judah along with you?” ⁴ 

But after our ancestors ¹  angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands ²  of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon. ³ 

Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name ¹  is in him.

Jerusalem certainly stumbles, Judah falls, for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ¹  they rebel against his royal authority. ² 

So, mourn, ¹  you people of this nation. ²  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ³  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ⁴ 

When he went out from there, the experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, ²  and to ask him hostile questions ³  about many things,

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ¹  his spirit was greatly upset ²  because he saw ³  the city was full of idols.

if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them.

It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.