Deuteronomy 32:21

32:19-25 The revolt of Israel was described in the foregoing verses, and here follow the resolves of Divine justice as to them. We deceive ourselves, if we think that God will be mocked by a faithless people. Sin makes us hateful in the sight of the holy God. See what mischief sin does, and reckon those to be fools that mock at it.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God,.... With a false messiah; for after the death of Jesus, the true Messiah, God as well as man, many false Christs arose, as he predicted, and were received for a time, who were mere men, and deceivers; and their now vainly expected messiah, or whom they look for, according to their own sense of him, is no other than a mere creature, and not God: or with the idol of their own righteousness; which, as an idol is nothing in the world, that is, nothing in the business of justification, and put in the room of Christ highly provokes the Lord to jealousy: they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; such were their false Christs they in vain trusted in, and such the idol of their own righteousness they set up, but could not make to stand; and such were the traditions of their elders; they put upon an equality with, or above the word of God; all which stirred up the wrath and anger of God against them: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people: this is not to be understood of any particular nation, but of the Gentiles in general, and of God's elect among them, and of the calling of them; which would be provoking to the Jews, as the Apostle Paul has taught us to understand it, Romans 10:19.

These were not the people of God, or not my people, as he says Romans 9:25; In some sense indeed they were his people, being chosen by him, and taken into covenant with him; for he is God not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also; and those were given to Christ as his people, and are his other sheep which were not of the Jewish fold; and who were redeemed by him to be a peculiar people out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, all which was before their calling: yet, in another sense they were not his people; they were without any spiritual privileges, the word and ordinances, without the knowledge of God and Christ, without communion with them; they were not a people near unto the Lord, he had not laid hold on and formed them for himself in regeneration and conversion; they were not reckoned the people of God, nor called so, and especially by the Jews, who accounted themselves to be the only people of God; see Ephesians 2:11, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation; either the Romans in particular are meant, so called because of their gross idolatry, to which they were addicted, who otherwise in their political affairs were a wise and understanding people; to these Judea became a province, and were subject to tribute; and by the exactions of the Romans, and their ill usage of them, they were provoked to rise against them, which issued in their ruin: or rather the Gentiles in general, who might be called foolish because of their superstition and idolat

Deuteronomy 32:21 . They have provoked me to anger with their vanities — By vanities here are meant the fictitious deities of the nations with whose worship the Israelites corrupted themselves: see Jeremiah 8:19 ; Jeremiah 14:22 . I will move them to jealousy, &c. — God here threatens to repay their frequent revolts from him in their own kind, in a way most mortifying to their proud spirits; by causing the very Gentile nations, whom they much despised, not only to become their masters and conquerors, but also to be taken into his covenant, while they themselves were excluded from it. See Matthew 21:43-44 ; Romans 10:19 . With those that are not a people — With the heathen nations, who were none of God’s people, who scarce deserved the flame of a people, as being without the knowledge and fear of God, which is the foundation of all true policy and government, and many of them destitute of all government, laws, and order. And yet these people God declares he will take in their stead, receive them, and reject the Israelites, which when it came to pass, how desperately did it provoke the Jews to jealousy! A foolish nation — So the Gentiles were, both in the opinion of the Jews, and in truth and in reality, notwithstanding all their pretences to wisdom, there being nothing more foolish or brutish than the worship of idols.

(21)“They have made me jealous with a no-god; They have provoked me with their vanities: And I will make them jealous with a no-people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them.” St. Paul comments on this in Romans 10, as proving that Israel was informed of the calling of the Gentiles, and compares Isaiah 65:1, “I was found of them that sought me not. I made myself manifest unto those that inquired not after me.” Rashi quotes, perhaps not quite inappropriately Isaiah 23:13, and gives this explanation, “A no-people,” i.e., a nation without a name; as it is said, “Behold the land of the Chaldseans: this people was not.”

Verse 21. - (Cf. Deuteronomy 5:16 .) Because they had moved God to jealousy and provoked him to anger by their vanities, their nothingnesses, mere vapors and empty exhalations ( הִבְלָים ; cf. Jeremiah 10:6 ; John 2:8 ; 1 Corinthians 8:4 ); as they had forsaken him for a no-God, he would send retribution on them by adopting as his a no-people, and giving to a foolish nation, i . e . a nation not before possessed of that true wisdom the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord, the privileges and blessings which Israel had forfeited by their apostasy. By "a no-people" is not to be understood a savage tribe not yet formed into a community, but a people without God, and not recognized by him as in covenant union with him (cf. Romans 10:19 ; Ephesians 2:12 ; 1 Peter 2:10 ). Deuteronomy 32:21

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a {n} people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. (n) Which I have not favoured, nor given my law to them.

With those which are not a people, i.e. with the Gentile or heathenish nations, who are none of my people, who scarce deserve the name of a people, as being without yoke, without the knowledge and fear of God, which is the foundation of all true policy and government, and without righteous and necessary laws; and many of them are destitute of all government, and laws, and order, barbarous and rude, and savage, and brutish in their manners. And yet these people I will prefer before you, and take in your stead; receive them, and reject you; which, when it came to pass, how desperately it provoked the Jews to jealousy, may be gathered from Matthew 21:43 Acts 11:2,3 22:21-23 1 Thessalonians 2:15,16 . A foolish nation; so the Gentiles were both in the opinion of the Jews, and in truth and reality, notwithstanding all their pretences to wisdom, Romans 1:22 , there being nothing more foolish or brutish than the worship of idols. See Jeremiah 10:8 1 Corinthians 12:2 .

God would mete out to them the same measure as they had done to Him. Through chosen by the one God to be His own, they had preferred idols, which were no gods. So therefore would He prefer to His people that which was no people. As they had angered Him with their vanities, so would He provoke them by adopting in their stead those whom they counted as nothing. The terms, "not a people," and "a foolish nation," mean such a people as, not being God's, would not be accounted a people at all (compare Ephesians 2:12 ; 1 Peter 2:10 ), and such a nation as is destitute of that which alone can make a really "wise and understanding people" Deuteronomy 4:6 , namely, the knowledge of the revealed word and will of God (compare 1 Corinthians 1:18-28 ).

21 . moved … to jealousy ] See on Deuteronomy 32:16 . Mark the antitheses: no-god ( lo’-’el ), no-people ( lo’-‘am , as hitherto outside the nations known and to be reckoned with, by Israel, as unfit to serve any Divine purpose); and vanities (lit. breaths , or as we should say, bubbles , so in Jer. of the heathen gods, Deuteronomy 8:19 , etc.) and foolish ( nabal , chosen perhaps both because of its probable root-meaning fading, worthless , parallel to vanities, and because it was used in a religious sense, godless, infidel ). See Paul’s application of the v . in Romans 10:19 . 22 For a fire has flared from my wrath, And burned to the lowest Shĕ’ól, It devours earth and her increase, It flames round the roots of the hills. 23 I will sweep up evils upon them, Against them exhaust mine arrows. 24 Drained by famine, devoured by fever (?) And poisonous pestilence (?), The teeth of brute beasts will I send them, With venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Abroad shall the sword bereave, And terror be in the chambers— As well the youth as the maiden, The suckling and gray-headed man.