Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
Parallel translations
- WEB Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
- KJV Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
- BSB Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
- NASB Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
- NLT What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Dividing one's worship provokes the Lord's jealousy, and no one can prevail against him. Idolatry is a dangerous affront to a holy God.
Overview
Alluding to Deuteronomy 32:21, Paul warns that idolatry stirs God's righteous jealousy for his people's exclusive devotion. The rhetorical question 'Are we stronger than he?' exposes the folly of provoking the Almighty. God's jealousy is not petty but the proper response of covenant love, and Christ's redemption claims our wholehearted, undivided worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 32:21They 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.
- Deut 32:16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
- Heb 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Ezek 22:14Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.
- Deut 4:24For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
- Ps 78:58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
- Josh 24:19Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.
- Job 40:9–14Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
- Exod 34:14for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
- Deut 6:15for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
- Eccl 6:10Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
- Exod 20:5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
- Isa 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker — a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
- Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
- Job 9:4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
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Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 10:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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