One of Moses' final actions was to teach the Israelites a special song. Learning this song and heeding its message would be vital to their future (Dt 32:44-47).
The song is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. Its words are directed to the entire cosmos (verse 1). Scholars have classified it as a "covenant lawsuit." One of its purposes was to be a witness against the Israelites (Dt 31:19).
It also has a pedagogical purpose. "May my teaching drop as the rain," Moses begins in verse 2. One leading lesson of the song is that God is the Rock---strong, reliable, providing protection (vv 3-4).
Human beings, on the other hand, are fickle. Although the Israelites have and will receive many blessings, they have a tendency to forget the source of their blessings (vv 5-18).
Chief among those blessings is the special place that Israel has among the nations. When God set up the nations and directed them to spread out over the earth (Gen 10-11), he set members of his divine council over the other nations but decided to supervise Israel directly (vv 8-9).
There is a textual question surrounding verse 8. The NASB, reflecting the MT, translates it: "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of mankind, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel."
On the other hand, the ESV has "according to the number of the sons of God" instead of "according to the number of the sons of Israel," reflecting the LXX, DSS, and other witnesses. The NLT clarifies with "according to the number in his heavenly court."
What could "according to the number of the sons of Israel" mean in this context? One tradition says that the number in view here is twelve. In Gen 10:15-19, where the names of the Canaanite peoples are given (12 names in all if we count Canaan), boundaries of their territory are delineated carefully. But the Canaanites, this tradition says, are just occupying this territory temporarily until it is time for the Israelites to take over. It's to that fact, presumably, that the final phrase in Deuteronomy 32:8 refers.
Another view says that the relevant number is 70, the number listed in Genesis 46 and the traditional number of the nations. In this reading, it's Israel mission to the nations that is referenced at the end of Deuteronomy 32:8.
One problem with the "sons of Israel" version of verse 8, though, is that at Babel there weren't any Israelites yet. The "heavenly court" version makes more sense in context, in addition to being well-attested textually.
There are hints elsewhere in the Bible that back up the "heavenly court" version. At Babel in Gen 11, God was working in consultation with the heavenly court. We see this in Ge 11:7 when he tells then, "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language ...." We also see it in Deut 29:26, with its warning about Israel's likelihood of worshiping "gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them." The elohim referred to here are presumably members of the heavenly court that had been placed over other nations.
There are further hints that God had placed heavenly beings over the nations in Psalm 82, where those beings are reprimanded; and in Dan 10:13, with its reference to a heavenly "prince of the kingdom of Persia."
The arrangement described in verses 8-9, with God supervising Israel more directly and delegating the supervision of other nations to subordinates, has been called the "Deuteronomy 32 worldview" by Michael Heiser. This view is prominent in both Jewish and Christian traditions. Gerald McDermott demonstrates its prevalence in patristic thought in his book God's Rivals.
The song goes on to relate that if Israel abandons God, he will allow them to suffer the covenant curses and go into exile. However, to protect his reputation and not give other nations the wrong impression, he ultimately will bring about Israel's restoration. In the end, all nations will worship him together.
Here is the song's conclusion in the LES: " Delight, O heavens, with him and worship him, you sons of God. Delight, O nations, with his people and prevail with him, all you angels of God. For he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will avenge and he will repay the enemies with vengeance, and he will repay those who hate, and the Lord will cleanse out the land of his people."
Paul quotes verse 43 in Rom 15:10 in discussing God's plan for all nations. Deuteronomy 32 seems to have been a great help to Paul in understanding that plan. He grieved the fact that a number of his fellow Jews were not receptive to the Gospel, but he was confident that God would ultimately bring many to faith in the Messiah, based on Deuteronomy 32. In Romans 11:11, he declared, "So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." Here he alluded to Deuteronomy 32:21,
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