Who are the 'divine sons' being commanded to worship in the LXX Deuteronomy 32:43 textual variant?

Question

Background

There's a well known textual variant between the MT and LXX readings of Deuteronomy 32:43:

εὐφράνθητε, οὐρανοί, ἅμα αὐτῷ, καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι Θεοῦ· εὐφράνθητε, ἔθνη μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐνισχυσάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες υἱοὶ Θεοῦ· ὅτι τὸ αἷμα τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ ἐκδικᾶται, καὶ ἐκδικήσει καὶ ἀνταποδώσει δίκην τοῖς ἐχθροῖς καὶ τοῖς μισοῦσιν ἀνταποδώσει, καὶ ἐκκαθαριεῖ Κύριος τὴν γῆν τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ.

Be glad, O skies, with him, and let all the divine sons do obeisance to him. Be glad, O nations, with his people, and let all the angels of God prevail for him. For he will avenge the blood of his sons and take revenge and repay the enemies with a sentence, and he will repay those who hate, and the Lord shall cleanse the land of his people. (NETS)

The LXX reading is closer to the 4QDeut manuscript from Qumran with several changes. The MT (and interestingly the Samaritan Pentateuch) very clearly dropped a reference to 'gods' found in 4QDeut.

Question

Who is the referent of 'him' who the angels are told to worship in this passage? Is the referent the same throughout the entire verse?

Answer 1

The OP asks "who are the divine sons" in the LXX version of the passage, but it later asks: "Who is the referent of 'him' who the angels are told to worship in this passage?"

I will answer the second question first. The reference of "him" is God. In Jewish theology God and God alone is to be worshiped. Christians do sometimes understand the refences to be Jesus based on Hebrews and John, but it is important to know that this is not how the passage was understood by those to whom it was addressed. Understanding it to be Jesus requires hindsight through Christian spectacles, which is fine as long as one knows that this is the case.

Regarding "who are the divine sons" this is usually thought by both Christians and Jews to be angels. However, some scholars believe these "sons" to have originally been thought of as lesser deities. This interpretation accords with another passage in Deuteronomy:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (NABRE)

Once again both the Masoretic and the DSS seemingly edited this passage to read "sons of Israel" but the LXX makes more sense in context: there was a time when other gods were allotted their people by the Most High, and the people of Israel belong to the Lord.

Conclusion: the answer to the second question is God and God alone, according to the original pre-Christian meaning of the text. The answer to the headline question is either angels or lesser deities.

Answer 2

The great "Song of Moses" recorded in Deut 32 is a hymn of praise to God that is referenced several times in the NT such as Rev 15:3. It naturally falls into several stanzas, each with a different theme of praise:

• V1-4 is a call to the universe to listen to the hymn of praise
• V5-9 records God's grace despite Israel's rebellion
• V10-27 recounts God's leading and rescuing of Israel despite their sinfulness
• V28-33 records more of Israel's humanity and their need of God
• V34-38 celebrates the LORD's readiness act on behalf of His people
• V39-42 records God's uniqueness, His omnipotence and righteous judgement
• V43 is a conclusion encouraging the universe to praise God.

V43 in the MT is (NASB):

“Rejoice, you nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will return vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”

V43 in the LXX is:

Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.

The antecedent of all these "He"/"Him"/"His" pronouns is the same - it is the subject of the previous stanza, V39-42, who is described as follows:

• ἐγώ εἰμι = the great "I AM" (V39, compare Isa 41:4, 43:10, 13, 25, 45:19, 46:4, 48:12, 51:12, 52:6 of the LXX which all refer to the LORD/YHWH)
• the one and only unique God (V39)
• the source of life (V39)
• the great Healer (V39)
• the One who lifts His hand to heaven (V40, compare Dan 12:7, Rev 10:5)
• the One who takes vengeance and judgement for His people (V41, 42)

More details are given in the NT that V43 refers to the preincarnate Jesus:

• Heb 1:6 - And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”
• Jesus claimed to be the Great "I AM" in several places but particularly John 8:58, and then demonstrated that identification and its associated power in John 18:5, 6.