MOSES’ LAST message was a warning—not just to the Israelites, but to the lesser elohim who’d rebelled against the authority of God.

We discuss Moses’ warning to the people against disobeying the commandments of God, the commissioning of Joshua, and the Song of Moses, which lays out the consequences of following other gods.

Deuteronomy 32 makes it clear that these small-G “gods” are real and that not all of them are faithful. We explain why Deuteronomy 32:8 should read “sons of God” and not “sons of Israel,” and share some background of the “demons” (Hebrew shedim) in Deut. 32:17.

Interestingly, Deut. 32:24 suggests that two entities known as deities in ancient Canaan may have been agents of God’s judgment for disobedience—Qeteb (“pestilence”) and Resheph (“plague”), who was later known to the Greeks and Romans as Apollo.