Fwiw, methinks Deuteronomy 32-33 is trying to explain how Yahweh came to be the god of Israel.
Methinks the author was trying to say that Yahweh did not inherit Israel in the same way that the other gods (the sons of El) inherited their nations. Yahweh did not inherit Israel because he was a son of El, rather, Yahweh inherited Israel because he found them wandering in the desert.
Here’s an interesting reconstruction of Deuteronomy 32:43. It might shed some light on the question of how people understood Deuteronomy
- back in the old days when ‘Jesus walked the earth’.
The original text of Deuteronomy 32:43, as a whole, is notoriously difficult to reconstruct. Indeed, G. Ernest Wright judiciously remarks that it “simply cannot be reconstructed with certainty.” Nonetheless, I venture to propose the following reconstruc-tion, and for the following reasons …
Rejoice, O nations, with his people,
and let all the gods worship him.
Surely, the blood of his servants he will avenge;
he will take vengeance on his adversaries
and make atonement for the land of his people.
