Bible Strands
Psalms 106:29
So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist recounts Israel’s wilderness rebellion, immediately following the Baal of Peor incident where the people adopted pagan worship. The narrative records the direct consequence of their covenant violation.
The words — The verb יכעיסוּ (yakhîsû) means "they provoked to anger," linked to מַעַלְלֵיהֶם (maʿal-lêhem), "their deeds." The consequence is stated with תפרץ (tifrôṣ), "it broke out," describing the sudden onset of the plague.
The thread — The identical phrase "provoked to anger" appears in Deuteronomy 32:16, where Israel’s foreign worship elicits the same divine response. The wilderness context and death toll are echoed in 1 Corinthians 10:8, though that passage specifies sexual immorality rather than idolatry.
Why it lands — The text establishes a direct causal link between deliberate covenant violation and communal judgment. It requires the reader to recognize that divine anger is a measured response to specific actions, not arbitrary wrath.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 10:8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
- Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
- Ecclesiastes 7:29 Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
- Numbers 25:9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
- Psalms 99:8 O LORD our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, yet an avenger of their misdeeds.
- Psalms 106:39 They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
- Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.