Bible Strands
Psalms 78:58
They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist summarizes Israel’s covenant rebellion immediately after describing their faithlessness in Psalm 78:57 and directly before noting Yahweh’s judicial rejection in verse 59.
The words — The Hebrew verb יַקְנִיאֽוּ (yakni'u) literally means "they made jealous," indicating that idolatry actively provoked Yahweh’s covenant jealousy, while בָמוֹתָם (bamotam) denotes the "high places" where foreign altars were erected.
The thread — This specific combination of idolatry provoking divine jealousy and the subsequent destruction of high places recurs in Deuteronomy 32:21, Leviticus 26:30, and 1 Kings 12:31.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant loyalty demands exclusive worship and that substituting God with idols triggers divine rejection.
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
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- Leviticus 26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
- 1 Kings 12:31 Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.
- 1 Corinthians 10:22 Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
- Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
- Deuteronomy 12:2 Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
- Judges 2:11 And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- 1 Kings 11:7 At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
- Exodus 34:14 For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.