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elo'ah

אֱלֹהַּ

HebrewH0433God, god

Appears 57 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 32:15Deu 32:172Ch 32:15Neh 9:17Job 3:4Job 3:23Job 4:9Job 4:17Job 5:17Job 6:4Job 6:8Job 6:9Job 9:13Job 10:2Job 11:5Job 11:6Job 11:7Job 12:4Job 12:6Job 15:8Job 16:20Job 16:21Job 33:12Psa 114:7Dan 11:38Dan 11:39Hab 1:11Hab 3:3
Word studyeh-LO-ahnoun

What elo'ah means

God: the one true deity, and by extension any being worshiped as a god

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This is the singular form behind the far more common plural Elohim, and like that plural it points overwhelmingly to the one true God. It is a poet's word: more than two-thirds of its appearances are in the book of Job, where it serves as the steady, dignified name for the God whom Job and his friends argue about, and the rest cluster in poetry such as the Psalms, Deuteronomy 32, Habakkuk, and Proverbs.

The two senses below are not two different words but one word seen from two angles. Its core is simply deity, a being who is worshiped. Most often the reader already knows that being is Israel's God, so the word means God plainly. But the same word can stand for the bare category of god, which is what makes it the natural choice when a writer wants to deny that the so-called gods of the nations are anything at all, or to expose a conqueror who has made his own strength his god.

Because it carries no built-in marker of which deity is meant, context does all the work. When Job says God, he means the Almighty; when Daniel speaks of a god the fathers did not know, the same word names a counterfeit.

Nuances

1athe one true God, the maker and ruler whom people worship
Deu 32:15Job 3:4Job 3:23Job 4:9Job 4:17Job 5:17Job 6:4Job 6:8Job 6:9Job 9:13Job 10:2Job 11:5
1ba god: any being treated as a deity, including the foreign or false gods the text often exposes as empty
Deu 32:172Ch 32:15Dan 11:37Dan 11:38Dan 11:39Hab 1:11

What scholars say about elo'ah

The lexica treat אֱלוֹהַּ as the singular of אֱלֹהִים, a poetic and largely later or dialectally marked alternative to the more usual designations for deity, concentrated in Job (41 of 57 occurrences) and otherwise in poetry. BDB and HALOT give the primary sense as "God" (the God of Israel) with a secondary general sense "a god," including foreign deities (Daniel 11:37-39; 2 Chronicles 32:15; Habakkuk 1:11). The Job concentration has prompted discussion of an Aramaizing or archaizing coloring and a possible dialectal or northern setting for the dialogues, though the word is also at home in mainstream Hebrew poetry (Deuteronomy 32; Psalms; Proverbs 30:5). The relationship to אֵל and אֱלֹהִים is treated as one family of terms for deity rather than as distinct etymologies in dispute.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. אֱלוֹהַּlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. אֱלוֹהַּlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. אֱלוֹהַּlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. אֱלוֹהַּ / 'elohimtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of אֱלֹהַּ

m s absolute

אֱלוֹהַּ, אֱלוֹהַ, אֱלֹהַ

Job 3:4, Job 3:23, Job 5:17, Job 6:4, Job 6:8, Job 6:9, Job 9:13, Job 10:2

m s construct

אֱלוֹהַּ, אֱלֹהַּ, אֱלוֹהַ

Neh 9:17, Psa 114:7, Dan 11:39, Dan 11:38, 2Ch 32:15

m s construct

לֵאלֹהוֹ

Hab 1:11