One of the central claims within the Divine Council worldview is that Yahweh forsook the nations at Babel. According to this interpretation, humanity’s rebellion at the Tower of Babel resulted in God withdrawing from the nations and assigning them to other divine beings to rule in His place. Israel alone remained under Yahweh’s direct rule, while the rest of the world was placed under the authority of lesser elohim.
This idea has become so common in recent discussions that many readers simply assume Deuteronomy 32 teaches it. But when the passage is examined carefully in its biblical context, something quite different begins to emerge.
Deuteronomy 32 is not describing the disinheritance of the nations. It is describing the election of Israel.
The difference is not minor. It reshapes the entire way the passage should be understood.
The story begins at Babel. Genesis 11 describes humanity gathering in unified rebellion against God:
Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves
Genesis 11:4
Rather than spreading across the earth as God commanded, humanity attempted to establish its own authority and identity apart from Him. Yahweh responded by confusing their languages and scattering them across the earth. The unified rebellion was broken apart, and the nations were formed.
What the Babel account never says, however, is that these newly formed nations were once in covenant with God and were now being rejected. The text never suggests that Yahweh had previously claimed these nations as His people and then abandoned them.
In fact, no such covenant existed.
The only universal covenant before Babel is the covenant with Noah, and that covenant is not a relational covenant in which God claims a people for Himself. It is a promise restraining judgment and preserving the stability of creation. The language of covenant sonship and belonging does not appear until much later.
Immediately after Babel, the biblical narrative shifts dramatically.
Genesis 12 introduces Abraham.
Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation’
Genesis 12:1–2
This moment defines the trajectory of the entire biblical story. Out of the nations that had been scattered across the earth, God chooses one man and one people through whom His redemptive purposes will unfold.
This is not the termination of a previous covenant. It is the beginning of one.
When Moses later reflects on the division of the nations in Deuteronomy 32, he describes the event in these words:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
Deuteronomy 32:8–9
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
But the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage
The verbs in this passage are important. Yahweh is the acting subject throughout the entire sequence. He gives. He divides. He fixes. He allots. The nations do not slip from His control, nor is His rule transferred to other beings. Yahweh remains the one ordering and governing the world.
The contrast introduced in verse 9 reveals the real emphasis of the passage.
But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
The point is not that the nations were forsaken. The point is that Israel was chosen.
The language Moses uses is the language of inheritance. Words such as “portion,” “allotted,” and “heritage” belong to the vocabulary of covenant relationship. They describe belonging and possession, not territorial administration.
Deuteronomy 32 is therefore addressing a covenantal question, not a governmental one. It explains which people Yahweh would claim as His own.
Out of all the nations that had emerged from Babel’s rebellion, God chose Israel as His inheritance.
This distinction matters because the disinheritance interpretation assumes something the text never states. It assumes that the nations were once Yahweh’s covenant people and that Babel represents the moment when He withdrew from them and transferred their governance to other gods.
But the biblical narrative never describes such a relationship.
The nations formed at Babel were not rejected covenant partners. They were rebellious peoples who had never entered into covenant with Yahweh in the first place.
God’s response to Babel was not abandonment. It was election.
He chose Abraham.
He formed Israel.
He established a covenant people through whom His purposes would unfold.
And throughout the rest of the Old Testament, Yahweh continues to rule the nations directly. The prophets consistently portray Him raising up kings and bringing them down according to His will.
For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations
Psalm 22:28
God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne
Psalm 47:8
The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will
Daniel 4:32
None of these passages suggest that Yahweh relinquished authority over the nations after Babel. Instead, they repeatedly affirm His direct sovereignty over all peoples.
When the biblical narrative is allowed to speak for itself, Deuteronomy 32 does not describe the disinheritance of the nations. It describes the inheritance of Israel.
Out of a world fractured by rebellion, God chose one people to be His own.
The passage is about covenant election, not divine abandonment.