Deuteronomy 32.8-9
briefly presents a very polytheistic account in which the supreme god, here
named Elyon, apportions different peoples to different gods, with Yahweh, where
in the role of a lesser god (!), receiving the Israelites as his share. Smith
(2008: 140) offers a recent translation,
When the Most High
(Elyon) gave the nations their inheritance,
and divided humanity (literally, “the sons of a human being”),
He [Elyon] established the boundaries of peoples,
[according] to the number of the sons of God/the children of Israel.
For the portion of Yahweh is his people,
Jacob his inherited measure.
Plainly descending
from a fully polytheistic tradition, the surprising account differs from those
at Iliad 15.187-93 and in the Atra-Hasis in that it does not depict
drawing lots, nor does it specify a tripartite division. Here a Supreme god,
called Elyon, dispenses the various peoples of the world to various gods, with
only Yahweh specified as the one of the latter. In other respects, however, it
suggests broad generic affiliations with the passages from Iliad 15 and
the Atra-Hasis. Iliad 15, for instance depicts why it is that
Zeus has dominion over the heavens. Deuteronomy 32 depicts why Yahweh has the
people of Israel as his special responsibility. (Bruce Louden, Greek Myth
and the Bible [Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies; Oxford:
Routledge, 2019], 45)
