Deuteronomy32:17

Translation

They sacrificed to demons which [were] not ELOAH,

to gods they did not know, new ones, ones that arrived recently,

ones your fathers did not fear.

Paraphrase

They offered sacrifices to demons who are not the same as THE MAJESTIC, ALL-POWERFUL GOD, to supposed deities that had not been part of their history, to man-made deities that were new to them, to ones that had come into existence recently, i.e. recently been invented by man, ones they did not learn about from their predecessors because their ancestors definitely did not worship or follow them.

Footnotes

1

Eloah is a singular form of the name Elohim, which is plural. Some have suggested that this is a reference to a “not-god” a non-entity, but that is mitigated against by the use of the same word, Eloah, in verse 15 where it is clearly used of the Creator God “who made him.” Therefore, this is a reference to the one true God. It appears the best rendering of the clause includes an assumed verb as follows: “which [were] not god”.

2

This word expresses proximity in either space or time. The context is clear that this proximity is temporal.

3

In this type of setting, “fear” means to worship, follow and obey.

ARE OTHER GODS REAL?

It was most strange to quickly adopt new gods, without pressure or provocation. Religion was usually passed down from one generation to another so there had to be a really good reason to switch gods that one worshipped. The Creator God is making the case that His chosen people abandoned Him in favor of other supposed gods who they had no previous connection to and who had done nothing to win their favor.

This verse, and others such as I Cro 10:18-22, informs us that there were only two categories within idolatry, these were – demonic activity and the imagination of humans. Some humans actually imagined and then believed that those pieces of wood and shiny metal were gods or that the spirit of their god inhabited the object they had made with wood and gold. That is why the prophets mock them for taking one piece of wood and using half of it for firewood and half of it for an idol. However, there were also demons involved to make the gullible people think that their supposed gods actually did have power and could impact their daily lives. I agree with MH that the pieces of wood and metal were nothing, but I disagree with him about other gods being real. There are no gods other than the Creator God. Anything apart from the Creator God that appears to be functioning as a diving figure must be a demon masquerading as a benevolent deity.

This verse does not teach that other gods are real; it teaches us that everything that other religions thought of as a deity was a demon. There is no such thing as a council of gods.