Deuteronomy 32:20

Hebrew Bible

18 You forgot the Rock who fathered you, and put out of mind the God who gave you birth. 19 But the Lord took note and despised them because his sons and daughters enraged him. 20 He said, “I will reject them. I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty. 21 They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them. 22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger, and it burns to lowest Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

Jeremiah 12:4

Hebrew Bible

3 But you, Lord, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed! 4 How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, “God will not see what happens to us.” 5 The Lord answered, “If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country, how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River?

 Notes and References

"... Before I cite the parallels between Deuteronomy 32 and Jeremiah, I shall state my own conclusion: the poem clearly antedates Jeremiah. The parallels with Jeremiah's words offer substantial data for this conclusion. Not all of the parallels are of equal weight - some are persuasive and some only suggestive ... In Deuteronomy 32:20 Yahweh says, 'I will see what their end will be,' and in Jeremiah 12:4, Jeremiah has Israel's doubters say, 'He will not see our end'; again, Jeremiah seems to have adapted the old phrase for a new purpose. In Deuteronomy 32:21 we have 'They offended me with their nothings (that is, idols), and in Jeremiah 8:19 Yahweh interrupts with 'Why have they offended me with their idols, with alien nothings?' ..."

Holladay, William Lee Jeremiah 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapters 26-52 (pp. 90-91) Fortress Press, 1989

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