Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 82, 1 Kings 22 and Job 1 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Divine Council
Psalm 82, 1 Kings 22, Job 1 and Psalm 89 each describe a court gathered for judgment in heaven, and Deuteronomy 32:8 survives in two readings that bear on who sits in it.
Scripture shows God enthroned over a real heavenly assembly, and no member of it is His rival.
- First taught
- Deuteronomy 32:8 “When the Most High gave the nations their…”
- Fullest statement
- Psalm 82:1 to 8 “God presides in the divine assembly; He…”
William Blake, Satan Before the Throne of God, 1805 to 1806. Public domain.
Summary
Of all the members of the assembly in these scenes, Satan is the only one Scripture names, and in Daniel 10 the one prince named is Michael.
- At Deuteronomy 32:8 the Masoretic Text reads sons of Israel, while a manuscript from Qumran reads sons of God and the Septuagint reads angels of God, which ties the nations to the host.
- Michael S. Heiser reads the gods of Psalm 82 as heavenly beings, and Matthew Henry and Charles Spurgeon read them as the judges of Israel.
- The theme runs on into the princes of Persia and Greece in Daniel 10 and the rulers and authorities of Ephesians 6:12.
The Scenes Themselves
The texts show the assembly at work before any theory explains it.
Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.Micaiah gives this report to King Ahab before the battle at Ramoth-gilead, as the word of the LORD.
One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.The prologue opens this scene in Job 1:6 and again in Job 2:1, and the trials of Job follow from what is said in it.
For who in the skies can compare with the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD? In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.The psalm sets the praise of the LORD's faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones in Psalm 89:5, and these verses call that assembly a council.
God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods:Psalm 82 opens with the assembly itself on trial, and its word elohim names both the Judge and the judged.
The Hebrew phrase bene ha-elohim, sons of God, is the name Job gives the members of the assembly.
In Psalm 29:1 and Psalm 89:6 the Berean text speaks of heavenly beings in the same way.
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible of 1710, read Job's scene as a real gathering with a Satan among the sons of God when they come together. He wrote two centuries before the tablets of Ugarit, now read beside these scenes, were found.
Albert Barnes, in his Notes on 1 Kings 22:19, counts Micaiah's sight of the LORD enthroned a rare favour, granted also to Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Stephen and John.
Who the assembled ones are is the contested question, and three readings answer it.
1 Kings 22:20 to 23, the court deliberates1 passage
And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one suggested this, and another that. Then a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ asked the LORD. And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”In this scene several members of the host speak, one suggesting this and another that, before a spirit offers itself, and Micaiah tells it to explain the false word of Ahab's prophets.
Job 38:7, the sons of God at creation1 passage
while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?This is the third place Job uses the phrase sons of God, and the only one outside the prologue.
Psalm 89:6 to 7, Psalm 82:1
The Case for a Heavenly Council, Step by Step
Nine texts carry the case from the throne of 1 Kings 22 to the words of Jesus in John 10.
Each step rests on one text, and the steps run in the order the argument takes them.
- What the text gives
- the LORD on His throne with all the host of heaven standing by Him
- Text
- 1 Kings 22:19
- What the text gives
- the sons of God present themselves before the LORD, and Satan comes with them
- Text
- Job 1:6
- What the text gives
- all the sons of God shouted for joy while the morning stars sang
- Text
- Job 38:7
- What the text gives
- in the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared
- Text
- Psalm 89:6 to 7
- What the text gives
- the boundaries of the peoples set according to the number of the sons of God
- Text
- Deuteronomy 32:8
- What the text gives
- the LORD's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance
- Text
- Deuteronomy 32:9
- What the text gives
- God renders judgment among the gods, and they will die like mortals
- Text
- Psalm 82:1 to 7
- What the text gives
- all the nations are the inheritance of God
- Text
- Psalm 82:8
- What the text gives
- Jesus quotes the words I have said you are gods
- Text
- John 10:34 to 35
Steps 5 and 6 read Deuteronomy 32:8 in the Berean text, which follows the reading sons of God.
The gods judged, The nations claimed, Scripture cannot be broken
Psalm 82, Verse by Verse
Psalm 82 is a trial held in heaven and closed with a prayer for the earth.
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’ But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.”The charge of verses 2 to 4 is the neglect of the weak, the fatherless and the needy, the wrong the psalm judges the gods for.
The psalm judges the gods and ends with the nations returned to God.
| Verses | The movement | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Psalm 82:1 | The scene | God presides over an assembly and sits as its judge. |
| Psalm 82:2 to 5 | The charge | The assembled ones are charged with unjust judgment, and verse 5 says they wander in the darkness. |
| Psalm 82:6 | The address | God calls them gods and sons of the Most High. |
| Psalm 82:7 | The sentence | Whatever the gods are, they will die like mortals. |
| Psalm 82:8 | The verdict sought | The psalm's last prayer answers the allotment of Deuteronomy 32:8 to 9. |
Deuteronomy 32:8 in Two Readings
The verse on which the council reading turns survives in two forms, and English versions divide between them.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.The two readings of this verse decide whether the nations were divided by the number of Israel or by the number of heavenly beings.
When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.Deuteronomy itself makes the same division earlier: the host of heaven apportioned to the nations, and Israel taken as the people of His inheritance.
Both readings are ancient, and English versions divide between them.
| Witness | Its reading | English versions with the same reading |
|---|---|---|
| The Masoretic Text | sons of Israel | the King James Version (children of Israel), the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible and the JPS Tanakh of 1917 |
| 4QDeutj, a manuscript of Deuteronomy from Qumran | sons of God | the Berean Standard Bible and the English Standard Version, with the New Revised Standard Version reading gods |
| The Septuagint, the Greek translation | angels of God | Brenton's English translation of the Septuagint |
Deuteronomy 32:43 and Hebrews 1:6, a second reading in the Song2 passages
Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people.The Berean text here carries the line let all God's angels worship Him, which the King James Version does not have.
And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”Hebrews quotes that line of the Song of Moses and applies it to the Son.
What Scripture Leaves Unsaid
The council texts describe the assembly and leave its roll unwritten.
Scripture never lists the members of the council, gives their number or says which people each was set over.
Micaiah does not name the spirit who came forward in 1 Kings 22:21.
The Council in the Words of Jesus and the Prophets
Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6, and Daniel and Paul write of powers set over the nations and in the heavens.
Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?This is the one place the New Testament cites the psalm, and Jesus argues from the lesser title to the greater.
However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.The verse sets a prince over a kingdom of the earth, the arrangement Deuteronomy 32:8 describes on the reading sons of God.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.The opponents Paul names are spiritual powers, the theme the princes of Daniel 10 open in the prophets.
Daniel 10:20 to 21, the prince of Greece1 passage
“Do you know why I have come to you?” he said. “I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But first I will tell you what is inscribed in the Book of Truth. Yet no one has the courage to support me against these, except Michael your prince.The chapter closes with the messenger going back to that struggle, so the conflict is still under way when the vision ends.
Teachers on the Council Scenes
Three quotations from Matthew Henry and John Wesley speak to the court of Job and to Psalms 82 and 89.
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“They are sons of the mighty, but which of them can be likened unto the Lord? Nobles are princes' peers; some parity there is between them. But there is none between God and the angels; they are not his peers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Psalm 89:6Puritan
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“To the kingdom of the Messiah. It is a prayer for the hastening of that, that Christ would come, who is to judge the earth, and that promise is pleaded, that God shall give him the heathen for his inheritance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Psalm 82:8Puritan
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
The quotation1 quotation
“And it is likewise intimated, that the affairs of earth are much the subject of the counsels of the unseen world. That world is dark to us: but we lie open to it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Job 1:6Evangelical
Three Readings of Who the Council Are
The readings divide over who the gods of Psalm 82 are and over which text of Deuteronomy 32:8 is the original.
Heavenly beings in a heavenly council4 paragraphs
On this reading the gods of Psalm 82 and the sons of God of Job and Deuteronomy are heavenly beings. The reading sons of God at Deuteronomy 32:8 is taken as the original, and the nations as set under lesser divine beings while the LORD kept Israel for Himself.
Michael S. Heiser holds this reading in The Unseen Realm (2015). In his Response to Dr. Thomas Howe's Thoughts on The Unseen Realm (2019), he writes that Psalm 89 places the council and its sons of God in the skies. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Old Testament, notes that the Syriac version renders Psalm 82:1 in the congregation of angels.
The same reading is joined to the sons of God of Genesis 6, read as angels who left their place, and the study The Watchers and the Nephilim sets that reading out.
The objection is a caution: a large system of doctrine should not be built on one manuscript's reading of one verse.
The Masoretic reading, sons of Israel3 paragraphs
On this reading sons of Israel is the original and a deliberate reading. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers ties it to the seventy nations of the dispersion from Babel and the seventy of Jacob's household who went down into Egypt. On that reading the LORD left room for His own people when He divided the lands.
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, follows Kennicott in reading the verse as an early division of the earth by divine command, probably by lot, among the sons of Noah. Palestine, on that reading, was kept back as the LORD's portion for one people.
The holders of the first reading answer with the witness of 4QDeutj and the Septuagint, and with the council scenes of Psalm 82 and Psalm 89, which the reading sons of God matches.
Human judges called gods4 paragraphs
This reading takes the rulers and judges of Israel as the ones God calls gods, for the office of judgment He gave them, and holds that verse 7 sentences them to die like other men.
Matthew Henry reads the mighty of verse 1 as magistrates in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, and Charles Spurgeon calls them delegated gods in The Treasury of David. John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, takes the words of John 10:35, to whom the word of God came, as those to whom God was then speaking.
Meredith G. Kline reads the sons of God of Genesis 6 as dynastic human rulers in Divine Kingship and Genesis 6:1 to 4, in the Westminster Theological Journal 24 (1962). The study The Dynastic-Ruler Reading of the Sons of God sets out that argument.
The objection rests on Psalm 89, which sets the council in the skies, and on Job 1:6 and Job 38:7, where the sons of God stand before the LORD and shout for joy at creation.
Books to Read Next
Four commentaries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries read the council texts verse by verse.
Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry · 1710
Henry wrote notes on every psalm and on each chapter of Job.
The Treasury of David, volume 4
Charles Spurgeon · 1874
Spurgeon writes on Psalm 82 verse by verse, and on Psalm 89:7 he dwells on the fear of God in the assembly of the saints.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
Charles John Ellicott, editor · nineteenth century
The note on Deuteronomy 32:8 to 9 gives the case for the reading sons of Israel.
Read the note at Bible HubCommentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke · 1832
Clarke's note on Job 1:6 sets out how the ancient versions render the sons of God, from the Vulgate to the Chaldee.
The King Over Every Throne
The council texts leave the reader before one Judge of all the nations.
Whatever reading the reader holds of the gods of Psalm 82, the psalm asks the reader to join its last prayer and look for the day God judges the earth. In John 10:36 Jesus names himself the One the Father sanctified and sent into the world, and the reader is asked to trust him as that Son.
Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your inheritance.This is the one verse of the psalm spoken to God, where verses 2 to 7 speak to the gods.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The King James Version.
- Bible Hub, Deuteronomy 32:8 in the parallel translations, with Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers on verses 8 and 9.
- Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint in English, Deuteronomy 32.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, volume 4 (1874)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765) and upon the New Testament (1755)
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible.
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm (Lexham, 2015), cited only; and his Response to Dr. Thomas Howe's Thoughts on The Unseen Realm (drmsh.com, 2019)
- Meredith G. Kline, Divine Kingship and Genesis 6:1 to 4, Westminster Theological Journal 24 (1962)
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