Deuteronomy 32:8-9 states (and here I will be using the New Revised Standard Version):
"When
the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he
fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;
the LORD's own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share."
I
think that Deuteronomy 32:8-9 is from a source that is earlier than the
rest of Deuteronomy 32:1-43, which is the Song of Moses. I don't know
if anyone else has said this----I wouldn't be surprised if someone
has----but it just seems to me that the content of Deuteronomy 32:8-9 is
at odds with the rest of the Song of Moses. At the same time, however,
I make this statement while holding specific assumptions about what the
content of Deuteronomy 32:8-9 actually is, and perhaps it would fit
right into the rest of the song were I to have different assumptions.
Allow
me to first share what my assumptions about Deuteronomy 32:8-9 are. I
base them on things that I have read and heard within academia. First,
the Most High (Elyon) is different from the LORD (YHWH), and the Most
High is dividing up the nations among the gods and is giving Israel to
the LORD. Second, Deuteronomy 32:8-9 indicates that it's all right for
the other nations to worship their own gods, since these nations belong
to those gods; Israel, however, is allowed to worship only her god,
namely, YHWH.
These themes appear to contradict what's in the rest
of the Song of Moses. First, whereas Deuteronomy 32:8-9 presents the
Most High dividing up the nations and giving Israel to YHWH, as if
Israel existed before YHWH became her god, Deuteronomy 32:6 affirms that
the YHWH created Israel. Second, whereas Deuteronomy 32:8-9 appears to
deem other nations' worship of their own gods to be acceptable, much of
the Song of Moses depicts Israel's oppressors as foolish. This
judgment extends to their worship, for Deuteronomy 32:31 says that their
rock is not as our (Israel's) rock. A significant message in
Deuteronomy 32 is that YHWH will defeat Israel's enemies in order to
glorify his own name, so that the nations would know about YHWH's power
and supremacy. Why would the Song of Moses incorporate an earlier
piece, if it contradicted its ideology? Because Deuteronomy 32:8-9
affirms that Israel belongs to YHWH, which is a significant theme in the
Song of Moses: Israel belongs to YHWH and not the other gods, yet
Israel has strayed from YHWH.
Now let me critique what I just
said. First, I'll do so while retaining my assumptions about the
meaning of Deuteronomy 32:8-9. Perhaps YHWH was the creator of Israel,
not in the sense that he brought the Israelites into being, but rather
in that he made Israel what she was as a nation: he delivered her from
slavery, gave her laws and a system of authority, and gave her land.
Professor Bernard Batto said in his book, Slaying the Dragon,
that the story of the Red Sea (at least according to one of the biblical
authors----I think it was P) was a creation story: in the same way that
God in Genesis 1 split the waters and created the cosmos, so likewise
did he split the sea and create Israel. There were already
Israelites, but YHWH fashioned them into a nation and in that sense
could be called their creator. Could not Deuteronomy 32:8-9, therefore,
be consistent with the notion in Deuteronomy 32 that YHWH created
Israel: the Most High gave Israel to YHWH, who made her into a nation?
Regarding
the issue of Deuteronomy 32:8-9 deeming foreign worship of the gods to
be acceptable, perhaps that is the case, and yet that is consistent with
believing that the gods of the other nations are not as good as YHWH,
the God of Israel. Israel has the better deal, the Song of Moses may be
saying, yet she chooses to worship other gods! Moreover, maybe
Deuteronomy 32 tolerates the foreign worship of other gods, while still
deeming it to be foolish, since YHWH is superior.
Second, I'll
critique my assumptions about Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and see where I end
up. Maybe Deuteronomy 32:8-9 does not regard the Most High and YHWH as
two distinct gods, but rather as the same god. In this case, YHWH
created Israel and the other nations, and took Israel for himself. On
whether Deuteronomy 32:8-9 deems the foreign worship of the gods to be
acceptable, my point here is the same as what I said above: it may
regard it as acceptable, yet as a raw deal, and as foolish, since YHWH
is superior.