Deuteronomy 32:21

(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 ).