Deuteronomy 32:16,17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

They provoked him to jealousy Speaking after the manner of men. See on Numbers 25:11. The word expresses not only the hot displeasure and indignation of God, but also the ground of it, which was Israel's falseness to him, whom they had accepted as their husband, and their spiritual whoredom with other gods. They sacrificed unto devils Not that they actually considered their gods under the notion of devils; but, whatever pretext they might have for their idolatry, when they sacrificed, they really did it unto devils, the wasters and destroyers of mankind, as the Hebrew word שׁדים, shedim, here used, is thought to signify, and as the devil is called, Revelation 9:11. Some, indeed, think it is a word of the same import with שׂעירם, segnirim, (Leviticus 17:7,) a name given to demons, either because they were conceived to haunt waste places, or to appear in the form of goats. To devils or demons the Israelites sacrificed their sons and daughters, when they sacrificed them unto the idols of Canaan, Psalms 106:36-38. But these idols may here and elsewhere be termed devils, because devils brought them into the world in opposition to the true God, and gave answers by them, and in and through them received men's worship. Many of the heathen considered their idols as a sort of lower gods, and pretended to worship the supreme God by them: but Moses here takes off this mask, and shows the Israelites that in worshipping these idols they worshipped devils, whose will they hereby obeyed, and whose work and service they promoted. And not to God For God utterly rejected those sacrifices which they offered to him together with idols. To gods whom they knew not Had no experience of receiving any good from them, or who knew not them, as the words may be rendered; that is, who had never bestowed any benefits upon them. As, on the contrary, the true God says, (Hosea 13:5,) I did know thee in the wilderness, which the Chaldee interprets, I supplied thy necessities. New gods Not simply or absolutely, for some of them had been worshipped for many generations; but in comparison of the true God who is the Ancient of days, (Daniel 7:9,) and who was worshipped from the beginning of the world. Moses may, however, also intend to signify that they had not so much as the plea of ancient custom or tradition for the worship of many of their idols, and that they were so prone to idolatry, that every new object or mode of heathen superstition caught their fancy, and drew them away from their allegiance to the true God. Whom your fathers feared not Worshipped not: and concerning whom they had no superstitious dread, (as the word שׂערו, segnaru, here used, imports,) no fear lest they should be hurt by them if they did not worship them, which fear differs essentially from that pious fear and reverence which we owe to the true God. He means they were such gods as could neither do good nor evil, Jeremiah 10:5.