Deuteronomy 32:8

Hebrew Bible

6 Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish, unwise people? Is he not your father, your Creator? He has made you and established you. 7 Remember the ancient days; bear in mind the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. 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. 9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession. 10 The Lord found him in a desolate land, in an empty wasteland where animals howl. He continually guarded him and taught him; he continually protected him like the pupil of his eye.

LXX Deuteronomy 32:8

Septuagint

6 Do you thus repay the Lord these things, O people, foolish and not wise? Did not he himself, your father, acquire you and make you and create you? 7 Remember days of old; consider years of a generation of generations; ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High was apportioning nations, as he scattered Adam’s sons, he fixed boundaries of nations according to the number of divine sons, 9 and his people Iakob became the Lord’s portion, Israel a measured part of his inheritance. 10 He made him self-sufficient in a desert land, in thirst of heat, in a waterless place; he encircled him and educated him and guarded him as the apple of his eye.

 Notes and References

"... Here the [Samaritan Pentateuch] consonantal text is identical to that of the [Masoretic Text]. However, at the end of the verse the LXX reads: κατὰ ἀριθµὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ (according to the number of the angels of God) and 4QDeut reads: םיהולא ינב (the sons of God). The Table of Nations of Genesis 10, descendants of Noah’s sons who were spread out over the earth after the flood, lists seventy different nations. Barthélemy shows how the number seventy was also familiar as the number of gods in the Ugaritic pantheon. These were the sons of the deity Asherah and each was given to be the deity of a particular nation. The reading םיהולא ינב, found in 4QDeut (4Q37), seems to link Genesis 10 to this polytheistic world view, and the LXX supports this reading. Were this the original, it is understandable why monotheistic scribes thought it necessary to modify the Hebrew text ..."

Reid, Philip Mark A Preliminary Investigation into the Samaritan Pentateuch as an Intralingual Translation (pp. 89-90) University of the Free State South Africa, 2021

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