myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Deuteronomy 32:8–9

Sons of Israel, or sons of God?

When the Most High divided the nations, He set their bounds "according to the number of the sons of Israel" in the Masoretic Text, but "the sons of God" in a Dead Sea Scroll, and "the angels of God" in the Greek. It is one of the most significant textual differences in the Torah.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

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.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original DeuteronomyUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QDeut-j (4Q37)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

Why it matters

"Sons of Israel"
The nations' borders correspond to Israel's number: Jewish tradition linked it to the seventy nations and Jacob's seventy descendants.
"Sons of God"
Each nation is assigned to a heavenly being, while "the LORD's portion is his people" (32:9); compare 4:19 and Psalm 82.
The likely history
Many text critics think "sons of God" is earlier and was changed to avoid implying other divine beings; that explanation is a reconstruction.

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Deuteronomy

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 3rd century BC

    Septuagint

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC

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

    according to the number of the angels of God

    Giguet's French: "selon le nombre de ses anges" (his angels). Some Greek manuscripts read "sons of God."

  3. 1st century BC

    4QDeut-j (4Q37)

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

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

    בני אלוהים

    sons of God

    As published in DJD XIV. Status: reported reading; which letters are fully extant and which partly restored has not yet been checked against the plates 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 passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

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

    juxta numerum filiorum Israël

    according to the number of the sons of Israel

    Follows the Hebrew of Jerome's day.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, 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.

    יַצֵּב גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

    he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel

    "Sons of Israel."

  6. Ancient tradition; medieval copies

    Samaritan Pentateuch

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, 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.

    יצב גבלות עמים למספר בני ישראל

    according to the number of the sons of Israel

    "Sons of Israel."

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

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

    according to the number of the children of Israel

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

The Qumran reading shows the difference is at least as old as the 1st century BC and is not a Greek translator's invention. It connects the Song of Moses with the ancient picture of a heavenly council found in Ugarit, Psalm 82, Job, and Genesis 6. It does not support the modern claim that these beings were extraterrestrials.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented4QDeut-j reads "sons of God" as published.

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

  • Independently documentedMT, SP and the Vulgate read "sons of Israel"; the LXX "angels of God." Checked in the site's library (Greek via Giguet).
  • Strongly supported"Sons of God" is earlier.

    Source: E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress, 2012)

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.
  • Remember Horeb: No Images and No Other Gods →Moses reminds Israel that at Horeb they heard a voice from the fire but saw no form, so they must make no image of God or worship the sun, moon and stars. He foresees exile and return, and sets apart three cities of refuge east of the Jordan.
  • 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.