32:8~Gen. 11:7 ([Possibly])
(dividing the nations). The Septuagint and Masoretic Text feature differences
in Deut 32. The language of Deut 32:8 and 32:43 both seem to represent
euphemistic scribal intervention in the Masoretic version. The discovery of fragments
of Deut 32:8 at Qumran confirms the preferability of the Septuagintal version
(4QDeutj/4Q37). The primary textual witnesses can be compared and
briefly discussed:
When the Most High
apportioned the nations, when he separated humans, he set the boundaries of the
peoples, according to the number of the Israelites. (Deut 32:8 MT/SP
lit.)
When the Most High
was apportioning nations, as he scattered Adam’s sons, he fixed boundaries of
nations according to the number of the divine sons. (32:8 LXX)
When . . .
apportioned . . .of the sons of God. (32:8 4QDeutj/4Q37 lit.;
the rest missing)
The last phrase in
the critical eclectic Septuagintal version is “sons of God” (32:8 lit. LXX Göttingen;
rendered as “divine sons” by NETS above) based on the early witness 848 (first
century BCE) making this reading “assured.” Wevers explains, “The change to ‘angels’
was clearly a later attempt to avoid any notion of lesser deities in favor of
God’s messengers” (Wevers, Notes on Deuteronomy, 513). The scribal
change in the proto-masoretic Hebrew text of Deut 32:8, apparently during the
Hasmonean period or in the first century CE, suggests the same euphemistic
logic.
In sum of the textual
difficulties, the evidence strongly suggests the older better reading of Deut
32:8 refers to the Most High dividing the nations according to the numbers of
the sons of God. The exegetical point to be discussed presently works either
way; it simply makes more sense in light of the original reading.
The Son of Moses in
Deut 32:8 appears to offer an exegetical explanation of the diving of the
peoples known in Genesis by the narrative of the tower of Babel. The poetic
allusion refers to the same event, though the lack of verbal correspondence
means the relationship needs to be considered a possibility. The Song of Moses
provides the rationale of the divine comments, including its use of first-person
plural verbs in speaking to the celestial court (emphases mine).
[Yahweh said] “Come, let
us go down and let us confuse their language so they will not
understand each other.” So Yahweh scattered them from there over all the earth,
and they stopped building the city. (Gen 11:7-8, v. 7 lit.)
When the Most High
apportioned the nations, When he separated humans, He set the boundaries of the
peoples, According to the number of the sons of God. (Deut 32:8 lit.)
According to the Song
of Moses, Yahweh addresses the celestial court and calls upon them to go down
to confuse the language of the peoples in order to frustrate the project of the
tower builders. The seventy peoples listed in the table of nations in Gen 10 suggests
the “number of the sons of God” as seventy in the Song of Moses (The change in
Deut 32:8 proto-MT to “sons of Israel” required additional changes to make the
numbers of the sons of Jacob going into Egypt be seventy in Gen 46:20, 21, 22,
27; Exod 1:5). Other local cultures also thought in terms of seventy sons of
deity (See Palace of Baal, 4.vi.46).
In sum, the poetic
interpretation of the divisions of humans offers a reason for the seventy
nations that appear in Gen 10, namely, one for each of the sons of God in the
celestial court. (Gary Edward Schnittjer, Old Testament Use of Old
Testament: A Book-by-Book Guide [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic,
2021], 145-46)
