The allotment of the gods

God determined the regions of the earth and placed powerful angelic beings over those areas. They fail their duties, however, and accepted worship as though they were gods themselves. God judges them for this (telling them they will die as men). These beings maintain their borders regardless of their sentence and await the day of judgment. Until such time, they continue to rule over nations and battle with God's angels. Interestingly, other ancient nations had/have their own versions of this same story.

In ESV (although I recommend also reading NASB) read the following verses:

• Deuteronomy 4:19
  • "And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven."
• Deuteronomy 17:2-3
  • "If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden,"
• Deuteronomy 29:26
  • "and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them."
• Deuteronomy 32:8-9
  • "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, 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."
• Deuteronomy 32:16-17
  • "They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded."
• Deuteronomy 32:43
  • "Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's land"
• Psalm 82
  • "God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: ... You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!"
• Acts 17:26
  • "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,"
• 2nd Kings 17:26
  • "So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.”"

Related passages in terms of cosmic geography (allotments)

• Samuel 26:16 points to the concept of worshiping the god of whatever land you reside in
• 2nd Kings 5:17-19 king Naaman wants to bring home dirt from the land of Israel so that when he worships in the land ruled by a different god he will be able to worship on the dirt of the land of Israel and honor God in that way
• 2nd Kings 18:35 (Isaiah 36:20) Rabshakeh's taunt describes a 1 to 1 connection between gods and their countries and God and Jerusalem
• Daniel 10:13,20-21 speaks of the prince of Persia, Greece and Israel contending with one another
• Daniel 12:1 names Michael as the official prince of Israel who is in charge of protecting God's allotment

Acts 2 connects the day of Pentecost to the tower of babel (by using the same words and phrases), showing God is now welcoming the nations back into His family and abolishing the allotments in His own eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLb5-Ktc4cs