The Sons of Israel or God? – Deuteronomy 32:8

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

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Ha’azinu

Biblical Criticism

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:

^{דברים לב:ח} בְּהַנְחֵל עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידוֹ בְּנֵי אָדָם יַצֵּב גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Deut 32:8}When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

The final word has many variants:

MT (+SP, Pesh)	4QDeut^j	LXX^{848, 106c}	LXX (most MSS)
בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.	בני אלוהים.	υἱῶν θεοῦ^[2]	ἀγγέλων θεοῦ^[3]
the Israelites.	Sons of God (“divine beings”).	Sons of God (“divine beings”).	Messengers of God (“divine beings”).^[4]

According to the Masoretic version, the Most High divides the peoples of the world specifically into the number of the sons of Israel, ostensibly a reference to the 70 descendants of Jacob that came to Egypt according to Deuteronomy 10:22 (as well as Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 in MT, see case study 2). This is a strange claim: what is so significant about this number? If anything, as noted above, the symbolism goes in the opposite direction: the number of Jacob’s descendants represents the peoples of the world.

In contrast, the reading in 4QDeut^j and LXX makes perfect sense: The Most High divided all the peoples of the world between the divine beings, with each people possessing their own deity.^[5] Indeed, the next verse continues this point nicely:

^{דברים לב:ט} כִּי חֵלֶק יְ־הֹוָה עַמּוֹ יַעֲקֹב חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתוֹ.

^{Deut 32:9} For YHWH’s portion is His people; Jacob, God’s own allotment.

This imagery of an assembly of divine beings, presided over by a supreme god “(the Most High, ʿElyon)” appears also in Psalm 82 and 1 Kings 22:19, and is familiar from Ugaritic poetry.^[6]The MT’s “sons of Israel” reflects a conscious intervention in the text by a scribe uncomfortable with the polytheistic picture of divine beings, and thus, that scribe de-mythologized the original polytheistic description by replacing the word “god” with “Israel.”^[7]

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Published

August 24, 2023

Last Updated

November 17, 2024

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Published

August 24, 2023

Last Updated

November 17, 2024

[1] The anonymous poet speaks in the first person, and the Torah presents it as being recited by Moses.

[2] MS 848 is an early papyrus, P. Fouad Inv. 266. Wevers daringly includes this reading in the critical text edition of the LXX: John William Wevers, Deuteronomium, Septuaginta, Vetus Testamentum graecum, auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum gottingensis editum, III.2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977).

[3] The Greek rendering, “angels/messengers,” is the basis for the Old Latin’s “angelorum Dei.”

[4] The LXX tradition (except for the Hexaplaric manuscripts) unanimously disagrees with MT in representing a variant בני (as in the Qumran reading), represented by either υἱῶν or ἀγγέλων. For a rendering resembling the main LXX tradition ἀγγέλων, see the LXX of Job 1:6 and 2:1 בני אלהים – οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ. Likewise, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathanin Deut 32:8 explained בני ישראל as referring to both angels (cf. also Ibn Ezra ad loc.) and the number of the sons of Israel who left Canaan for Egypt.

[5]Thus Jeffrey H. Tigay, The JPS Commentary: Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1996), 513–18 (514). See also Mark S. Smith, “What is a Scriptural Text in the Second Temple Period? (…),” in The Dead Sea Scrolls at 60, ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman and Shani Tzoref, STDJ 89 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 271–298.

[6] See the Ugaritic text KTU 1.4, VI.46 where seventy sons of (El and) Athirat are mentioned. See N. Wyatt, “The Seventy Sons of Athirat, the Nations of the World, Deuteronomy 32.6b,8–9, and the Myth of Divine Election,” in Reflection and Refraction: Studies in Biblical Historiography in Honour of A. Graeme Auld, ed. Robert Rezetko et al., VTSup 113 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 547–56. It is possible that בני אלוהים in 4QDeut^jdeveloped from an earlier בני אל, the more ancient term which envisions the god El as the father of the younger gods. This would also make the MT correction more parsimonious, just adding the letters ישר before אל. This possibility may be supported by the fragmentary text 1QH^a 24 33–34 מבני אל שו[מעי ... מג]ב֯ולות עמים which clearly refers to this verse. As for the LXX, since it is in Greek, we do not know if it was rendered from either אלהים or אל.

[7] For more on this, see Jonathan Ben-Dov, “Are There Gods, Angels, and Demons in Deuteronomy?” TheTorah (2018).

[1] The anonymous poet speaks in the first person, and the Torah presents it as being recited by Moses.

[3] The Greek rendering, “angels/messengers,” is the basis for the Old Latin’s “angelorum Dei.”

[7] For more on this, see Jonathan Ben-Dov, “Are There Gods, Angels, and Demons in Deuteronomy?” TheTorah (2018).

Prof. Emanuel Tov is J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible (emeritus) in the Dept. of Bible at the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. He was the editor of 33 volumes of Discoveries in the Judean Desert. Among his many publications are, Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, Textual Criticism of the Bible: An Introduction, The Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 31 and The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research.

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