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.

4Q37 32:8

4QDeuteronomy
Dead Sea Scrolls

7 Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of God. 9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession.

 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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