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Journey of a Passage

Deuteronomy 32:43

The Song's last verse: four lines, six, or eight

The Masoretic Text ends the Song with four lines calling the nations to rejoice. A Qumran manuscript has six lines, beginning with the heavens and "all you gods" bowing down. The Greek has eight, including "let all the angels of God worship him," the line Hebrews 1:6 quotes.

Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original DeuteronomyUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QDeut-q (4Q44)Late 1st century BCDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy
Samaritan
  1. Samaritan PentateuchAncient tradition; medieval copiesDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy
Greek
  1. SeptuagintTranslated c. 3rd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Line by line

Heavens rejoice / gods (angels) bow
4Q44 and LXX; not in MT.
Nations rejoice with his people
MT and LXX; 4Q44 differs.
Sons of God strengthen themselves
LXX only.
Avenges the blood of his servants (sons)
All three, with small differences.
Repays those who hate him
4Q44 and LXX.

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Deuteronomy

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 3rd century BC

    Septuagint

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice, ye nations, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him…

    Eight lines. Giguet's French: "que tous les anges de Dieu se prosternent devant lui… que tous les fils de Dieu se fortifient en lui."

  3. Late 1st century BC

    4QDeut-q (4Q44)

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Rejoice, O heavens, with him, and bow down to him, all you gods… for he avenges the blood of his sons…

    As published in DJD XIV; six lines, probably from a manuscript containing only the Song. Extant and restored letters not yet checked here.

    Source: E. Ulrich et al., Qumran Cave 4.IX: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Kings, DJD XIV (1995); Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library ↗

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Laudate, gentes, populum ejus…

    The shorter form.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    הַרְנִינוּ גוֹיִם עַמּוֹ כִּי דַם־עֲבָדָיו יִקּוֹם

    Rejoice, O nations, his people; for he will avenge the blood of his servants…

    Four lines.

  6. Ancient tradition; medieval copies

    Samaritan Pentateuch

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Deuteronomy

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Samaritan Pentateuch, Kennicott's 1780 text digitized by A. Sigalov.

    הרנינו גוים עמו… כי דם עבדיו יקם

    The shorter form. The library's Samaritan text marks gaps in this verse, so its exact wording here awaits collation with Florentin and Tal (2025); a gap in our data is not an ancient omission.

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

The Qumran fragment confirms that a longer Hebrew ending existed, but it is not identical to the Greek, and the Greek has more than the fragment can confirm. Hebrews 1:6 ("let all the angels of God worship him") and Romans 15:10 ("Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people") quote lines from the Greek form.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented4Q44 has a longer form of 32:43 than MT.

    Source: E. Ulrich et al., Qumran Cave 4.IX: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Kings, DJD XIV (1995)

  • Conflicts with current evidenceThe Greek eight-line ending is fully attested at Qumran. 4Q44 is shorter and different in places.
  • Strongly supportedHebrews 1:6 quotes the Greek of Deuteronomy 32:43. Psalm 97:7 (Greek) is also proposed.

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Song of Moses: The Nations and Heavenly Beings →Moses' great poem calls heaven and earth to listen, tells how the Most High divided the nations and chose Jacob, how Israel grew fat and forgot the Rock, and how God will judge and then have mercy. Two of its verses read very differently in the oldest manuscripts: who received the nations, and who is called to worship at the end.
  • How Deuteronomy Came to Us →Moses on the plains of Moab; a scroll found in Josiah's Temple; an Assyrian loyalty oath; thirty-odd Dead Sea Scrolls, some with readings no modern Hebrew Bible has; a Samaritan Torah that names a different mountain; a Greek name taken from one verse; and a nineteenth-century "manuscript" that vanished. How Deuteronomy reached us, and what is still debated.