Seventy Angels Cast Lots and the Lord Chose Jacob

Rabbi Shimon says: The Holy One, blessed be He, called to the seventy angels who surround the throne of His glory and said to them: Come, let us confound their language into seventy nations and seventy tongues. And they cast lots, as it is said, "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:8). And the lot of the Holy One, blessed be He, fell upon Abraham and upon his seed, as it is said, "For the LORD's portion is His people, Jacob" (Deuteronomy 32:9). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: The cord and the lot that fell to Me, My soul desired it, as it is said, "The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places" (Psalms 16:6). "And the LORD came down to see the city," and so forth, and half the world fell there, and so forth, as it is said, "And the LORD scattered them from there" (Genesis 11:8).