Deuteronomy 32:43

Hebrew Bible

40 For I raise up my hand to heaven, and say, ‘As surely as I live forever, 41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; I will execute vengeance on my foes, and repay those who hate me! 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief of the enemy’s leaders.’” 43 Cry out, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge his servants’ blood; he will take vengeance against his enemies, and make atonement for his land and people. 44 Then Moses went with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.

LXX Deuteronomy 32:43

Septuagint

40 For I will lift up my hand to the sky, and I will swear by my right hand, and I will say: I live forever, 41 because I will sharpen my dagger like lightning, and my hand will take hold on judgment, and I will repay my enemies with a sentence, and those who hate me I will repay. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood— and my dagger shall devour flesh— with the blood of the wounded and of captives, from the head of the commanders of the enemies. 43 Be glad, O skies, with him, and let all the divine sons do obeisance to him. Be glad, O nations, with his people, and let all the angels of God prevail for him. For he will avenge the blood of his sons and take revenge and repay the enemies with a sentence, and he will repay those who hate, and the Lord shall cleanse the land of his people. 44 And Moyses wrote this song in that day and taught it to the sons of Israel. And Moyses entered and spoke all the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Iesous the son of Naue.

 Notes and References

"... The MT and SP of this verse both reflect an upstream theological change for similar reasons to 32:8. However, there are more substantial differences between the textual witnesses to this verse. In 4QDeutq, which preserves this verse, this text differs significantly from the MT, with six cola to the MT’s four. The LXX is even more expansive, with a total of eight cola. Like 32:8, this verse originally referred to a plurality of divine beings. In 4QDeutq, colon a2 reads םיהלא לכ ול ויחתשהו ‘And worship him, all (you) gods.’ This is cited in Ps 97:7, which is dependent on this verse (see McCarthy 2007, 153). The LXX interprets םיהלא as υἱοὶ θεοῦ, ‘sons of God’, but the common source text of the MT and the SP made a more radical intervention: this colon was eliminated for theological reasons along with its parallel first colon, a1, which places ‘heavens’ in parallel to ‘gods’. This was done for the same reasons as the change to 32:8, to remove the possible idea of polytheism. Along with this, ‘his sons’ in colon b1 was changed to ‘his servants’ for the same reason ..."

Reid, Philip Mark A Preliminary Investigation into the Samaritan Pentateuch as an Intralingual Translation (p. 96) University of the Free State South Africa, 2021

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