Prof. Emanuel Tov And The Sons of Israel or God Tahrif – Deuteronomy 32:8

Professor Emanuel Tov, the Magnes Professor of Bible (emeritus) in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies points out that the Haʾazinu poem towards the end of Deuteronomy (Deut 32:1–43), also known as Song of Moses, contains a passage (Deut 32:8) which describes the early days of the world, when the God Elyon, “Most High,” fixed (or: divided up) the boundaries of all peoples of the world in accordance with the number of the sons of Israel: Deut 32:8 “When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided up humankind, he fixed all the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.”

According to the Masoretic Text version, the Most High One divides all the peoples of the world specifically into the number of the sons of Israel, a reference to the 70 descendants of Jacob that came to Egypt according to Deuteronomy 10:22 (as well as Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 in the Masoretic text.

The reading from the Dead Sea Texts 4Q Deut and the Greek Septuagint translation makes perfect sense: The Most High divided all the peoples of the world between the divine beings, with each people possessing their own deity. Indeed, the next verse continues this point nicely: Deut 32:9 “For YHWH’s portion is His people; Jacob, God’s own allotment.”

This imagery of an assembly of divine beings, presided over by one supreme god “(the Most HighʿElyon)” appears also in Psalm 82 and 1 Kings 22:19, and is familiar from Ugaritic poetry.

The Masoretic Text “sons of Israel” reflects a conscious intervention in the text by a scribe uncomfortable with the polytheistic picture of divine beings, and thus, that scribe de-mythologized the original polytheistic description by replacing the word “god” with “Israel.” This is what Muslims call Tahrif, but it is not Tahrif because it is the correct meaning of the text.

According to the poem at the heart of Deuteronomy 32 (referred to as “the Song of Moses”, God established a special relationship with the people Israel and lovingly watched over and cared for them; yet many rejected God and turned to other deities. Enraged at their betrayal, God resolves to decimate Israel.

But God relents after realizing that the other nations might misinterpret Israel’s demise as a testament to their own power, not as a divinely inflicted punishment; so God decides instead to avenge the Israelites against their enemies.

One of the remarkable things about this poetic composition is the many different metaphors the poet uses for God. In the span of just fifteen verses (vv. 4-18), we find metaphors of God as a rock, father, eyelid, eagle, and mother. Exploring these metaphors teaches us about the poem’s many perceptions of God’s nature and God’s relationship to Israel, and about the way metaphor works in the Bible. None of these metaphors are Tahrif as Muslims do the same thing with God on his throne.

After comparing God to a rock in v. 4, the poem introduces a different divine metaphor in v. 6 when it asks: “Is He not your father, who created you, He made you and established you?” The three verbs in this verse focus our attention on God’s role as Israel’s creator (also Malachi 2:10).

In contrast, other biblical passages utilize the metaphor of God as father in order to call attention to different associated commonplaces and different facets of the divine-human relationship. For example, some texts speak of God as a father in order to portray God’s love and compassion (Psalm 103:13; Isaiah 63:16) or God’s disciplinary role (Proverbs 3:12), or to emphasize that the special bond between God and Israel sometimes brings with it unmet expectations (see Jeremiah 3:4, 19; 31:9).