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Bible Q

What is correct: God fixed the boundaries of the Gentiles according to the number of “the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8 KJV) or “sons of God” (ESV)?

Answered by . April 15, 2023 - 12:46 am

The Masoretic Text has

“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:8 KJV)

4QDeutj

“When Elyon gave the nations as an inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God (bny ‘l[hym]). For Yahweh’s portion was his people; Jacob was the lot of his inheritance”.

LXX

“When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God (aggelón theou). And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance”.

MT

“When Elyon gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel (bny yshr’l). For Yahweh’s portion was his people, Jacob was the lot of his inheritance”.

 

Notice that bny el is similar to bny yshr’l. However, how does that become aggelon theou (angels of god)? This seems to be quite far-fetched.

Another version talks about sons of Bull El instead of sons of El:

When Elyon gave the nations an inheritance, when he divided humankind, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of Bull El’s children, and Yahweh’s portion was his people, Jacob, the lot of his inheritance.

This is a reading found in the ESV

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. (Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV)

And reflected in the Septuagint :”When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the angels.”

32:8  ὅτε διεμέριζεν ὁ ὕψιστος ἔθνη ὡς διέσπειρεν υἱοὺς Αδαμ ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ

 

 

The broader context of Deuteronomy 32  The song of Moses & 33 The tribal blessings of Moses.

There are multiples differences between the MT and Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint in the Song of Moses. The ESV generally follows the DSS and LXX, but helpfully lists all the departures from MT in the footnotes.

ESV Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 32:8 Or territories
  2. Deuteronomy 32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text sons of Israel
  3. Deuteronomy 32:14 That is, with the best
  4. Deuteronomy 32:14 Hebrew with the kidney fat
  5. Deuteronomy 32:18 Or fathered
  6. Deuteronomy 32:35 Septuagint and I will repay
  7. Deuteronomy 32:36 Septuagint judge
  8. Deuteronomy 32:41 Hebrew the lightning of my sword
  9. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text Rejoice his people, O nations
  10. Deuteronomy 32:43 Masoretic Text lacks bow down to him, all gods
  11. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text servants
  12. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text lacks He repays those who hate him
  13. Deuteronomy 32:43 Or atones for
  14. Deuteronomy 32:43 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew his land his people
  15. Deuteronomy 32:44 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea

The 1 Enoch use of Deuteronomy 32 and 33.

As is known the Enoch myth is well attested at Qumran. At least 7 separate copies of 1 Enoch were found in fragments at Qumran, more than actual Bible texts. The contested use of Moses’ song continues into the next chapter where Deuteronomy 33:2 became the core source material for 1 Enoch 1 – changed from the context of obedient angels in Deuteronomy to fallen angels in 1 Enoch. This famously carries on into the Epistle of Jude where the author (certainly knowing, and arguably expecting his readers to also know, that the real author was Moses) ascribes the late midrash and distortion of De.33:2 in 1 En.1:9 to “Enoch, the Seventh from Adam”, which the context in Deuteronomy clearly shows it is not.

This however raises the issue of whether the Deuteronomy at Qumran was somehow conformed to the Enoch myths, with a relationship in both directions. The Jude incident may be a further indication of a widespread misuse of both De 32 and De 33 in the Judaism encountered by the early church.

 


Notes

[1] Question asked 2015 at Stackexchange

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/7862/what-is-the-original-text-of-deuteronomy-328-9

[2] Undated post (circa 25 August 2023) by Prof. Emanuel Tov: The Sons of Israel or God? – Deuteronomy 32:8

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-sons-of-israel-or-god-deuteronomy-32-8

The Haʾazinu poem towards the end of Deuteronomy (Deut 32:1–43), also known as the Song of Moses,[1] contains a passage (Deut 32:8) which describes the early days of the world, when the God Elyon, “Most High,” fixed (or: divided up) the boundaries of the peoples of the world in accordance with the number of the sons of Israel:

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