Deuteronomy 32, the Sons of God, and the Old Testament Worldview

Deuteronomy 32:8 describes Yahweh’s dispersal of the nations at Babel and his resultant disinheriting of those nations, allowing them to come under the power of other, lesser gods (elohim). Deuteronomy 32:9, by contrast, states that the nation of Israel belongs to Yahweh alone:

When the Most High apportioned the nations as an inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he established the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage (author’s translation).

English translations based on the Masoretic Text, the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament, read “sons of Israel” instead of “sons of God.” The phrase “sons of God” comes from manuscripts of Deuteronomy found among the Dead Sea Scrolls—scrolls much older than the Masoretic Text. The reading “sons of God” is also found in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament). The reference to the events at Babel—the dividing up of humankind—in Deuteronomy 32:8 highlights an important point regarding this manuscript disagreement. The division of the nations at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) is connected to the Table of Nations of Genesis 10, which directly precedes it. The Table of Nations catalogs 70 nations but does not include Israel. This is because Israel did not exist at the time of the Babel event. This makes the reference to “sons of Israel” in Deuteronomy 32:8 anachronistic: “sons of God” was most likely changed to “sons of Israel” sometime after ad 100, when the Jewish community—partially in response to the Septuagint—standardized the Hebrew text.

Furthermore, the Masoretic Text has no inherent textual priority over other manuscripts. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript material in agreement with three known versions of the Hebrew Bible was recovered: the Septuagint, the Masoretic Text, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. All three are ancient witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. The situation regarding this material was one of textual plurality: a variety of texts were available to both Jewish and Christian communities, similar to the modern day proliferation of English translations of the Bible. Hence, the Masoretic reading of “sons of Israel” in Deuteronomy 32:8 does not seem to preserve the original text.

The Israelite View of the Nations and Their Gods

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 is fundamental for understanding the worldview of Old Testament Israel. These two verses explain both the existence of the foreign pantheons and their inferiority to Yahweh. A parallel passage to Deuteronomy 32:8–9, Deuteronomy 4:19–20, provides some context:

And do this so that you do not lift your eyes toward heaven and observe the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, as it is this day.

Deuteronomy 4:19–20 and Deuteronomy 32:8–9 represent two ways of describing the ancient Hebrew conception of world religions. In Deuteronomy 32:8–9, God apportions the nations to the sons of God; here, however, God allots the gods to the nations. Israelites, in other words, believed that Yahweh, their own supreme, unique God, essentially sentenced the nations and their gods to each other. At Babel, Yahweh, like a father dismissing and disinheriting his children, judges all the nations for their disobedience (Gen 11:1–9). Then, in the very next chapter, He calls Abraham (Gen 12:1–3), effectively starting over in creating an earthly human family for Himself.

These other gods, which Deuteronomy 32:8 refers to as “the sons of God,” were members of Yahweh’s heavenly host. Scripture elsewhere condemns both the members of the nations and their gods for disloyalty and corruption, showing that these foreign gods are fallen members of the heavenly host (Psa 82).

The Distinction of the Israelites

The Israelites were called to be distinct from other nations and their gods. The spiritual boundaries between Israel and every other nation indicated that loyalty to other nations could not be separated from loyalty to their gods. The distinctions even extended to physical geography. Circumcision and obedience of the law represented two ways that Israel demonstrated their distinctiveness and loyalty to Yahweh.

Circumcision reminded Israel that they were Yahweh’s portion. Other nations practiced circumcision, but it did not carry the same significance for them that it did for Israel. Circumcision for Israel was directly connected to their covenant relationship with Yahweh (Gen 17).

Similarly, while Israelite laws share many features with other ancient Near Eastern cultures, the rationale for the laws is unique to Israel. In Israelite religion the laws are inextricably tied to the covenant relationship between Yahweh and the people. This perspective, derived from the Israel’s unique status as Yahweh’s inheritance, does not appear in other law codes.

Cosmic Geography

The land of Israel, which was first promised to Abraham, was considered holy ground (Gen 17:8)—to be the land of Yahweh himself. According to the events of Genesis 10–11, the territory of other nations belonged to other gods. This concept is known as cosmic geography.

Following the supernatural deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery, they had to move into Yahweh’s holy land. But to do so, they had to combat foreign nations who now occupied it. These nations had been judged by Yahweh, due to their evil actions, and thus Yahweh empowered Israel to take the promised land from these other nations (Deut 9:4–6).

Israelites believed that the promised land of Israel (formerly Canaan) was Yahweh’s sacred domain and considered other nations—even when in the land of Israel—to be under the dominion of evil, lesser gods.

An example of the belief in cosmic geography is seen in 1 Samuel 26:18–20, where David—while being pursued by Saul—feels distress that he is not on holy ground. David connects being out of Israel with the idea that he has been sentenced to worship foreign gods. It seems reasonable to conclude that David does so because he knows that Israel is Yahweh’s portion and that Yahweh has disinherited all other territory and allowed it to come under the jurisdiction of lesser, foreign gods. David feels he cannot truly worship without being on holy ground and wants nothing to do with ground outside of Israel, where other nations worship their gods. Rather, he desires to be in the sacred space of Yahweh.

Another curious incident reflects this same aspect of Israel’s worldview. In 2 Kings 5:17–18, after Elisha the prophet heals him, Naaman, commander of the army of Syria (a domain outside Israel) makes the strange request of the prophet to have two mules’ load of earth from Israel, so that he may worship Yahweh. Naaman’s seemingly odd plea for dirt clearly reflects the worldview of Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 4, and Genesis 10–11. Naaman wants to ensure he worships the God of Israel from now on. And since the only way he can be sure he is worshiping the true God is to worship him on holy ground, he decides to take some of it with him.

The Israelite Worldview and the New Testament

Israel was to be a kingdom of priests, mediators between the disinherited nations and the true God (Exod 19:3–6). God’s work through particular Israelites, such as Jonah, shows his love for the whole world. The New Testament—which records in the book of Acts and through Paul’s letters the spreading of the good news of the salvation Jesus offers to the world—shows how Christ ultimately fulfills the purposes God set out for Israel.

The idea that corrupt gods (sons of God) both populate and control certain geographical regions was still prevalent in the New Testament era. Paul could be referring to geographical terminology and spiritual entities when he refers to principalities, rulers, thrones, authorities, powers, dominions (e.g., Eph 6:12). The most dramatic example, however, may be the Pentecost event in Acts 2, where people who spoke various languages hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and have an opportunity to accept that message. This had been foretold in passages like Isaiah 2:1–4. Christ became the ultimate mediator—giving every person the opportunity to be reconciled to God (Heb 4:14–16).

Michael S. Heiser

Further Reading

Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God