Stirred him to jealousy: see 4.24. God is spoken of in very human terms, as though he were a husband made jealous by the adulterous (extramarital) affairs of his wife.

Strange gods: the Hebrew is simply “strangers”; the meaning here is “pagan gods,” “gods of other nations.” Another way to express this is “They [or, You] caused Yahweh to be jealous when you worshiped foreign gods.”

Abominable practices: the poetic form places this Hebrew term in parallel with the idols of the first line; therefore this term refers, not the rites of worship of pagan gods as such, but to the idols themselves, as in verse 21 (see 7.25). So New Revised Standard Version has “abhorrent things,” and Contemporary English Version “disgusting idols.”

Provoked him to anger: see 4.25; 31.17.

Contemporary English Version restructures the verse in a helpful way:

• You made God jealous and angry
by worshiping disgusting idols
and foreign gods.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .