D32-6: Are There Other ‘Divine Beings’ Besides God Who Rule Over The Gentile Nations?

“When ‘Elyon gave each nation its heritage,
when he divided the human race,
he assigned the boundaries of peoples
according to Israel’s population;”
-Deuteronomy 32:8

We need to have a discussion about verse 8 of Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Why?

Because this verse has been furiously debated over time and depending on which Bible translation you’re using, the wording of the verse radically changes.

The reason for these variances is the source a particular Bible translation is based on.

There are three sources as follows:

-the Masoretic Text (the Hebrew Bible texts from the 10th Century A.D.)

-the Septuagint (Greek Hebrew Bible texts from 1st or 2nd century A.D.)

-Dead Sea Scrolls (from around 100 B.C.)

So depending on which of the above sources the Bible translator used, verse 8 is rendered differently.

Here’s the main issue.

Most English Bible translations (including the KJV and CJB) tell us that the Lord split up the human race and then assigned them territory on planet earth “according to Israel’s population” or “according to the sons of Israel” or some similar rendering.

The point being made according to this rendering is that God created the same number of gentile nations based on the number of Israelites that went down to Egypt with Jacob.

That number is 70.

And thus the number of nations God created is 70.

However, Genesis chapters 10 and 11 is where we find the record of God creating the nations by dividing up the human population and this is something that happened centuries before Abraham was even born.

This obviously leads us to the question of how in the world could God have based his creation of the gentile nations on the number of the “sons of Israel” before Israel even came into existence?

First, understand that any translation that says the gentile nations were created according to the number of Israelites is based on the Masoretic Hebrew Texts only.

However, when we examine the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls, we encounter a radically different explanation.

Translations based on the Septuagint and the Dead see scrolls renders verse 8 as…

…LE-MISPAR BENEI ELOHIM…

…or…

...”according to the number of divine beings”.

So we’ve got two different takes here.

The Masoretic Texts say the Lord created the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel and…

…the Dead Sea Scrolls say the Lord decided the number of gentile nations and their boundaries according to the number of “divine beings” and NOT based on the population of Israel.

And even if God has assigned divine beings to look over the gentile nations, He has separated Israel from them unto Himself.

Other Rabbis will say a more accurate way to translate verse 8 is to say…

…”equal to the number of the BENEI ELOHIM (sons of God)”.

During Yeshua’s time, this was actually how Deuteronomy 32:8 was interpreted and read.

In addition, since the first Septuagint was created about two centuries before that, we can conclude that the original wording was indeed…

…”equal to the number of divine beings”.

Are you catching the incredible implications of this conclusion?

The Bible is telling us that that there are other “divine beings” that rule over each gentile nation of the world?

What kind of “divine beings” might we be talking about there?

Are they other gods?

Are they demons?

Are they angels?

What makes matters even more confusing is that the Hebrew word ELOHIM being used in this text can legitimately refer to the only true God of Israel and “gods” with a small “g” depending on the context.

We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.