Deuteronomy 32:8 what is the correct reading?

Deuteronomy 32:8 what is the correct reading?

Deuteronomy 32:8 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. KJV

Deuteronomy 32:8 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. ESV

Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly.  NET

The NLT has heavenly court 

Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court. NLT 

The CEV has the paraphrased reading “He assigned a guardian angel to each of them,”

Deuteronomy 32:8 that God Most High gave land to every nation. He assigned a guardian angel to each of them, CEV

And the GNT has an angel being assigned to each nation 

Deuteronomy 32:8 The Most High assigned nations their lands; he determined where peoples should live. He assigned to each nation a heavenly being, GNT

But which is the correct reading in this verse?

The reading as found in the KJV is based on the Masoretic text that reads Bene Yisrael (sons of Israel). 

This reading is also found in many modern versions such as the NIV, the NASB, NKJV, CSB, ASV and ISV which do still follow the MT text reading and have sons/children of Israel as the reading in this verse. 

It must be noted that the KJV certainly wasn’t the first English Bible to read sons or children of Israel. The Wycliffe Bible 1395, The Tyndale 1534, The Great Bible 1540, The Matthew’s Bible 1549, The Bishops’ Bible 1568 and The Geneva Bible 1587 all have this reading. 

The LXX however, reads very differently than the Masoretic text. The LXX reads Angelos Theou (angels of God). 

The NET Bible gives footnotes stating that the MT has the reading sons of Israel, “the LXX” reads angels of God and that the DSS reads sons of God. 

However, despite these notes in which they give these 3 readings,  they have in the end completely ignored all three readings and created a reading, “heavenly assembly”  that is found in none. 

The DSS reading.

While the statement regarding the reading found in the dead sea scrolls is technically true, it must at least be noted that there is in fact just one manuscript (4q37-4q deut), dated to around 50 AD, found amongst the DSS that contains this portion of Deuteronomy 32:8. This is actually contrary to the claims of Dr Michael Heiser who incorrectly states that there are two manuscripts. 4QDtj does not contain the ending of verse 8. 

4q37-4q deut is a  fragment that was found at qumran. It contains just a few words of this verse.  When translated what we actually have is the wording “When….. sons of GOD.” 

Here is a picture of the fragment

This fragment does obviously read sons of God and not children of Israel as per the MT but the fact remains that it is just a single solitary witness found in a fragment of a manuscript. We do not have an array of DSS witnesses to this reading.

We MUST also take into account the theological beliefs of the Essenes when we take this witness into account.

It is also the presupposed belief that the sons of God are in fact angels that lends itself to the assertion that the DSS reading of sons of God supports the LXX reading angels of God. It is my assertion that sons of God does not refer to angels but believers and so the dead sea scroll reading would actually be support for the masoretic text reading of children of Israel and not the LXX reading. You can read my writing on this subject here. 

It should also be noted that there is an early LXX manuscript that also reads sons of God. MS 848 is an 2nd or 1st Century BC Papyri manuscript. This predates the DSS manuscript by anywhere between 50-250 years. (Depending on dates assigned). 

An argument against the reading children of Israel being the correct reading, that is often used,  is the fact that the nation of Israel had not yet been formed at the time that God set the boundaries of the nations back in Genesis 10. As the nation of Israel did not exist at the time God separated the nations and created the boundaries then they cannot be the referent of the verse. 

 However, this argument, although it may appear to offer support against the Masoretic text reading simply fails when it is properly analysed. 

In the very next verse, Deuteronomy 32:9, it is recorded that the LORD’S portion is his people and that JACOB is the lot of his inheritance. 

Deuteronomy 32:9 For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

This is a direct reference to the nation of Israel. Jacob whose name was changed by God to Israel, is of course, the father of the nation of Israel. 

However, it is important to note that Jacob, himself, did not exist at the time of Genesis 10 when the nations were separated and the boundaries drawn. 

The reference to Jacob is clearly prophetic. When the nations were divided God had set the boundaries with the future nation of Israel, his people, in mind. Jacob clearly already prophetically being Gods inheritance. 

God calls the nation of Israel his inheritance. 

Isaiah 19:25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

We also know that God promised Abraham a land to his descendants who, at the time that God made the promise, did yet not exist.  

Genesis 12: 1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. 6And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

God brought Abraham out of Ur to a land that would eventually become the promised land of Israel. 

Genesis 15:  7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

Genesis 15: 13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

The land that was promised to Abraham was in fact the land of the Canaanites. 

Deuteronomy 7: 1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

The boundaries of this promised land were also set. 

Exodus 23:31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

The reading sons/children of Israel makes perfect sense within the context while the reading that attests to the nations being divided according to the number of angels does not. There are not 70 angels. The Bible attests to the fact that there are literally millions to an innumerable number of angels. 

Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Revelation 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

The arguments against the MT reading only work if it is already believed that sons of God are angels and we ignore the very clear prophetic reference to the nation of Israel within the context of Deuteronomy 32:8. 

However, the Bible does attest to the 70 souls that came out of the loins of Jacob (Israel). 

Genesis 46:27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.

Exodus 1:5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

So we have biblical attestation to 70 being in reference to the sons of Israel. 

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