Today’s Torah reading, on the Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, is quite an amazing text with lots of interesting history. It is the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 32, called in Hebrew: Haazinu, literally, “Let Us Cause ourselves to Hear!” (it is a Hiphil Imperative Plural). The words are set in line-by-line poetic rhythm, as some translations show. The text is a Song, referred to subsequently as the “Song of Moses.” It was recited by Moses under inspiration to the entire nation and it reflects the prophetic future of the mission and historical fortunes of the Israelite people. One important thing to remember in reading this passage is that it is not merely about the Jewish people, whose history after the Babylonian Exile was shaped primarily around the tribe of Judah, but it is a “Song” for all the tribes of Israel. If it is read in that regard some of its stanzas and concepts are cast in a much different light. These are among the last recorded words of Moses.
The Song begins with expressions of the unique nature of YHVH as God of Israel. He is called the “Rock,” that “begot you,” the “father that has purchased you,” and the “Most High,” which is the ancient name El Elyon, used by the Abraham and those before him in speaking of the Creator (see Gen 14:18-19).
Beginning in 32:8 there are some important textual variations in our various copies of Deuteronomy. The basic text used and preserved by Jews for the past 1500 years, is called the Masoretic text (MT). There is also a translation of the Hebrew, dating back to 200 BCE, in Greek, that is called the Septuagint (LXX). And more recently, there are copies of sections of Deuteronomy that have survived as part of the library of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What is most interesting is Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts of Deuteronomy differ in some important ways from the Masoretic or traditional text, and its readings are paralleled by the Greek Septuagint. These variations have to do with the use of the term “sons of Elohim” or in Hebrew, the b’nai ‘Elohim.
These were not taken too seriously until the discovery of the DSS, since the LXX often has readings that differ from the MT (Masoretic) text, and in traditional Judaism the received Hebrew text is understood to be inviolate–letter for letter perfect. However, when it was 
discovered that the HEBREW text of Deuteronomy agreed with the Septuagint, against the MT, those readings have been given much more attention and weight. Slowly the scholars have begun to have more and more respect for the LXX. By and large it is a very literal translation, and there is now every indication that the translators were in fact translating a Hebrew original that is different from the MT–however, one values it. In other words, they were not just adding things and being sloppy with their translation work. Often the differences are not so important, when we compare the Qumran Hebrew Bible with the MT, but in this case these variants seem quite significant. Of course the Qumran copies are older than the MT by more than a thousand years, so the discovery of these most ancient of Hebrew texts raises all kinds of questions, both for the scholars and traditional Judaism (and even fundamentalist Christianity). Here are the differences:
MT (Masoretic text) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
LXX (Greek) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.
Qumran/DSS reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8: When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he sest the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Elohim.
Now this is really fascinating, in the light of the “B’nai Elohim” passage in Genesis 6, and the separation of the nations after the Flood in Gen 10-11, as both the “sons of Elohim” and the “daughters of Adam” are mentioned.
But it gets even more interesting when we read v. 43, the climax of the Song. I have marked the key differences in italics.
MT reads:
Deuteronomy 32:43 Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people; for He doth avenge the blood of His servants, and does render vengeance to His adversaries, and does make expiation for the land of His people.
LXX (Greek) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:43 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.
Qumran/DSS reads:
Rejoice O heavens, together with him, and bow down to him all you sons of Elohim, for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and will render vengeance to his enemies, and will recompense those who hate him, and will atone for the land of his people.
As with v. 8, you can see that the Qumran text essentially agrees with the LXX, and in both cases the focus is on the “B’nai Elohim.”
The RSV and other modern translations have adopted the reading of the LXX/DSS and other translations at least note it in the margin.
The implications of these alternative readings, and the meaning of the phrase “sons of Elohim,” is uncertain. It seems to go back, one way or the other, to Genesis 6, where this term is first used. One interpretation makes these a group of “angelic” beings, while the other sees them as part of a lineage that is traced in Genesis 5, from Adam through Enoch, and finally down to Abraham. There is no doubt that other sections of the Hebrew Bible, such as Psalm 82, speak of certain “angelic” beings or “Messengers” as “sons of Elohim,” but even so, the English translation “angel” can be quite misleading, since the root meaning of the Hebrew word, Ma’lak, is simple “messenger,” that is one sent with a mission. In fact, the context in this “Song of Moses” seems to imply that the “sons of Elohim” are in fact a lineage of human beings, the descendants of whom are the “sons of Israel.” Thus we get the language of “Is not He your father that has bought you,” earlier the song, and the clear reference to “avenging the blood of his sons,” which hardly seems to be a reference to so-called “angels.”
If such be the case the DSS version would not necessarily be different in meaning from that of the MT–the “sons of Elohim” would in fact be the chosen “seed” of Abraham, that is the “sons of Israel” or Jacob, his grandson.
There is much more of interest in this “Song of Moses,” such as the mysterious references to “no-people,” in 32:21 and the whole concept of the “hiding of the Face” of God.