“corrupt, yes, corrupt.” For emphasis, God doubles the verb “corrupt,” using the figure of speech polyptoton to emphasize the fact that the Israelites would utterly corrupt themselves in their turning to other gods.

[For more on the use of polyptoton, see commentary on Gen. 2:16.]

“making him angry.” The NET text note on Deuteronomy 4:25 gets the sense of the text correctly when it says, “The infinitive construct [in the Hebrew text] is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention of their actions.” Although many English versions use the word “provoke,” the Israelites did not worship idols with the intention of provoking God. But the result of their idolatry was that God was angered. In everyday English, “provoke” means to do something to intentionally upset someone, and that is not what was happening with Israel’s idolatry.

“by what your hands have made.” The Hebrew text is more literally, “through the work of your hands,” but the idea is that the idols were what the peoples’ hands had made, and the idols angered God.