Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
Parallel Translations
-
Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
-
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
-
Thus they provoked Him with their doings, and the plague broke in upon them.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Psalms 106:29 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Corinthians 10:8 Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.
- Deuteronomy 32:16-21 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread. Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth. Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- Numbers 25:9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
- Psalms 99:8 You answered them, Yahweh our God. You are a God who forgave them, although you took vengeance for their doings.
- Psalms 106:39 Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds.
- Ecclesiastes 7:29 Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”
- Romans 1:21-24 Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 29. And they provoked God to anger. The prophet…
29. And they provoked God to anger. The prophet once more informs us, that they had been put upon their guard by another plague, in order that it might appear that God had always a strict regard for his own glory, in chastising the people; but as they were not bettered by these plagues, these chastisements were fruitless. Having formerly stated, that God’s wrath had been appeased by the prayers of Moses, he now says, that the plague had been arrested or ceased by means of the kind interposition of Phinehas. Some render the word פלל, pillel, to pray; but the other rendering, to execute justice, is more in accordance with the context; namely, that by his zeal in executing justice upon the profligates, he turned away God’s vengeance from the Israelites. He stood up therefore, that is, he rose up or interposed, when all others maintained a careless indifference. As the Jews were sensible that it was by the kind intervention of one man that the plague was now healed, their obstinacy was the less excusable in not even then ceasing to sin. We must not forget that all these things are addressed to us. For when God from time to time chastises us, and calls upon us to repent by setting before us the example of others, how few profit by his corrections! Moreover, it deserves to be noticed, that the plague ceased at the very time when Phinehas executed justice. From this we may learn, that the most effectual way to quench the fire of God’s anger, is when the sinner willingly sits in judgment upon himself for the punishment of his own transgressions; as Paul says, 1 Corinthians 11:31,
“If we would judge ourselves, verily we would not be judged of the Lord.”
Read full note →
And surely God confers no small honor upon us, in placing the punishment of our sins within our reach. At the same time, it must be observed, that on that occasion the plague ceased in consequence of the punishment of a single person, because the people then shrunk from the abominable wickedness to which they had been addicted.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Signifying that whatsoever man inventeth of himself to serve…
Signifying that whatsoever man inventeth of himself to serve God by, is detestable, and provoketh his anger.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 106:29 Thus they provoked [him] to anger with…
Psa 106:29 Thus they provoked [him] to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
Ver. 29. Thus they provoked him] God cannot brook men’s devices in matters of religion; he will have no other worship than what himself hath appointed.
Read full note →
And the plague brake in upon them] As a deluge, or as an army, very impetuously, to the destroying of twenty-four thousand persons.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,....…
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,.... Sin is an invention of man's: when our first parents sinned, they found out many inventions; and their posterity ever since have been inventors of evil things; and man's invention is very quick at that work. All false doctrine and false worship are of men's finding out; all idolatrous practices are their inventions, and which are here intended; see Psa 106:39. And these are very provoking to God, who is jealous of his glory, and which is taken from him hereby; and even when he forgives such sins of men, he takes vengeance on their inventions, as in this case, Psa 99:8. For it follows:
and the plague brake in upon them: like an inundation of water, and carried off four and twenty thousand persons, Num 25:9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions…
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions - The word rendered “inventions” means properly “works; deeds;” then it is used in the sense of “evil” deeds, crimes.
And the plague brake in upon them - See Num 25:8-9. No less than twenty-four thousand fell in the plague. Num 25:9.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 29. And they provoked (him) to anger with their…
29. And they provoked (him) to anger with their doings] Again a Deuteronomic expression. Cp. Deu_4:25; Deu_9:18; Deu_31:29; Deu_32:16; Deu_32:21. ‘Inventions’ of A.V. reproduces the Vulg. adinventionibus suis.
a plague] Lit. smiting; either the slaughter of the guilty Israelites which had been enjoined (Num_25:4-5), or, as the word commonly means (Num_16:48, &c.), a divinely inflicted pestilence.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions;…
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions; or, with their doings. And the plague; rather, a Plague. brake in upon them. The judicial slaughter inflicted by command of Moses (Num_25:4-8) is called here, as it is also in Num_25:8, Num_25:9, Num_25:18, "a plague."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 29. Thus they provoked him to anger with…
Ver. 29. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too gross to be winked at. This time the offences clamoured for judgment, and the judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will not be slow to invent punishments. Their vices were a moral pest, and they were visited with a bodily pest: so the Lord meets like with its like.
Ver. 29. They provoked him to anger with their inventions. Note, that it is not said, with their deeds, but with their pursuits (studies). It is one thing simply to do a thing; it is quite another to pursue it earnestly night and day. The first may take place by chance, or through ignorance, or on account of some temptation, or violence, and that without the consent and against the inclination of the mind. But the latter is brought about in pursuance of a fixed purpose and design and by effort and forethought. We see, therefore, in this passage that the patience of God was at length provoked to anger and fury when the people sinned not merely once and again, but when the pursuit of sin grew and strengthened. Musculus.
Read full note →
Ver. 29. Their inventions. Their sins are here called by the name of "their inventions." And so, sure, they are; as no ways taught us by God, but of our own imagining or finding out. For, indeed, our inventions are the cause of all sins. And if we look well into it we shall find our inventions are so. By God's injunction we should all live, and his injunction is, "You shall not do every man what seems good in his own eyes" (or finds out in his own brains), but "whatsoever I command you, that shall you do." De 12:8. But we, setting light by that charge of his, out of the old disease of our father Adam ("ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil"), think it a goodly matter to be witty, and to find out things ourselves to make to ourselves, to be authors, and inventors of somewhat, that so we may seem to be as wise as God, if not wiser; and to know what is for our turns, as well as he, if not better. It was Saul's fault. God bade him destroy Amalek altogether, and he would invent a better way, to save some (forsooth) for sacrifice, which God could not think of. And it was St. Peter's fault, when he persuaded Christ from his passion, and found out a better way (as he thought) than Christ could devise. Lancelot Andrewes.
Ver. 29. Brake in upon them. The image is that of a river which has burst its barriers; see Ex 19:24. The plague is the slaughter inflicted upon the people by command of Moses; Nu 25:4-5, 8-9, 18. "The Speaker's Commentary."
Psalms 106:30*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.