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13 (A)He had them mount the summits of the land,[a]
    fed them the produce of its fields;
He suckled them with honey from the crags
    and olive oil from the flinty rock;
14 Butter from cows and milk from sheep,
    with the best of lambs;
Bashan[b] bulls and goats,
    with the cream of finest wheat;
    and the foaming blood of grapes you drank.

15 So Jacob ate and was satisfied,
    Jeshurun[c] grew fat and kicked;
    you became fat and gross and gorged.
They forsook the God who made them
    and scorned the Rock of their salvation.(B)
16 With strange gods they incited him,
    with abominations provoked him to anger.(C)
17 They sacrificed to demons, to “no-gods,”
    to gods they had never known,
Newcomers from afar,
    before whom your ancestors had never trembled.
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,
    you forgot the God who gave you birth.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 32:13 The land: Canaan.
  2. 32:14 Bashan: a fertile grazing land east of the Jordan, famous for its sleek, strong cattle. Cf. Ps 22:13; Ez 39:18; Am 4:1.
  3. 32:15 Jeshurun: a term for Israel from yashar, meaning “upright”; its use here is possibly ironic.

20 No, I mean that what they sacrifice, [they sacrifice] to demons,[a] not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 10:20 To demons: although Jews denied divinity to pagan gods, they often believed that there was some nondivine reality behind the idols, such as the dead, or angels, or demons. The explanation Paul offers in 1 Cor 10:20 is drawn from Dt 32:17: the power behind the idols, with which the pagans commune, consists of demonic powers hostile to God.