What Does Deuteronomy 32:16 Mean?
They set him burning with the gods of strangers; with what makes the body recoil, they provoked him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.THE KEY
The verse holds the offense as both a rival that stirs jealousy and an abhorrent thing that stirs anger.
THE MEANING
This speaks now wherever your allegiance is pulled toward what is outside the bond: the rival reaches into the relationship itself, and what receives that allegiance is named as abhorrent. Jealousy and anger remain paired responses in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that divided allegiance leaves the bond untouched dissolves here; the verse names jealousy and anger as its response.
THE ROOT
יַקְנִאֻהוּ
yaqni'uhu
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be jealous or zealous; to arouse jealousy or zeal.
“set him burning” in this verse is yaqni'uhu. The root holds jealousy and zeal together, making this more than a passing feeling: it names a forceful response within a relationship. Exodus calls the LORD “Jealous” with this same root, tying the response here to the nature of the bond.
ALSO GROWS
qin'ah: Jealousy, zeal
קִנְאָה
The noun carries both shades of the root, keeping jealousy and zeal joined.
qanna: Jealous, zealous
קַנָּא
Exodus 34:14 uses this form to name the LORD’s nature, illuminating the relational force of the verb here.
בְּזָרִים
b'zarim
GROWS FROM
זור
z-w-r
To be a stranger or foreign; to stand outside.
“strange” in this verse is b'zarim. The Hebrew says “with foreign ones” (בְּזָרִים, b’zarim); “gods” is supplied in the KJV. The wording marks the rivals by their outsider status, sharpening the relational tension in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
zur: To be a stranger or foreigner
זוּר
The verb gives the root sense of standing outside the relationship.
zar: A stranger, foreigner, or outsider
זָר
This form underlies the verse’s “strange [gods]” and makes their foreignness explicit.
תּוֹעֵבֹת
to'evot
GROWS FROM
תעב
t-ʿ-b
To abhor or detest.
“what makes the body recoil” in this verse is to'evot. The noun is built from the verb “to abhor”: the thing is named as an object of revulsion. Alongside jealousy, this root shows the verse’s anger directed toward what is experienced as abhorrent.
ALSO GROWS
ta'ab: To abhor, detest
תָּעַב
The verb reveals the response embedded in the name of the thing.
to'evah: An abomination, something detestable
תּוֹעֵבָה
This singular form shows how the verb’s sense becomes a name for the abhorrent thing.
THE PATTERN
A rival object of devotion strains the bond and draws a response of jealousy.
You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a zealous God, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.They have set me burning with what is not God, and provoked me with their vapors. And I will set them burning with what is not a people; I will provoke them with a withered nation.Or do we stir the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?THE THREAD
For you shall not bow down to another god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.The verb for provoking jealousy here and Exodus’s “Jealous” share the קנא (q-n-ʾ) root. Exodus names that root as part of the LORD’s nature, showing jealousy as a feature of the relationship itself.
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