When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 8. Israel. He suffered the people of Chanaan to occupy as much land as would be requisite for the Israelites. Septuagint “according to the number of the angels of God.” Hence many of the ancients gathered that there were seventy angel guardians of provinces, and as many languages; while others did not pretend to determine the exact number. But the version which they have followed, is in opposition to all the rest. Calmet.—They have also disputed, on this occasion, whether the elect will be equal in number to the good angels, as Saint Gregory thinks; (hom. 34, in Luc. 15) or they will only fill up the places of those who have fallen. See Mag. Sent. ii. 9. Abenezra observes, that interpreters understand this text as alluding to the dispersion of nations, (Genesis 11,) when God decreed that the land of the seven nations should belong to and be sufficient for the Israelites. Amama. Bible.—The Hebrew may be rendered, “He fixed the limits of each people. At that time the children of Israel were few in number, (9) when the Lord chose his people,” and so forth Long after the division of the earth, (which the Lord had ordered, Acts 17:26,) the Israelites were very few in number, as Jacob observes, Genesis 34:30. See Calmet. 26:5. Psalms 104:9. 12. Calmet.—But this explication does not satisfy Houbigant, (p. 76, Prol.) no more than that of Le Clerc. He is convinced that a word has been transposed, and another left out, as the Samaritan copy has Israel twice, and he would therefore translate, “He divided his people according to the number of the sons of Israel.” In his eternal decrees, He allotted twelve portions of land in Chanaan to the descendants of Jacob, and these Josue was ordered to mark out for them. See Joshua 4:5. Bible.