3. Eloah

Is the singular number of the word Elohim.
The singular number is comparatively of rare occurrence. The plural form is that which is used in Genesis, and so generally throughout the Bible, as the name of Him who is Creator of heaven and earth, and Arranger and Disposer of all things-that the occurrences of the form in the singular number demand a special consideration. For instance, the singular form is found fifty-seven times, of which forty are in the Book of Job; the plural form about 2,700. In neither of these do I include the Chaldee, where singular and plural occurrences are altogether under ninety-six.
It strikes me, that in many of the occurrences of the singular form, there is a contrast presented more between the thought of One God and many gods, than between the who, of the true God (who is the One only God) and what the so-called many gods are. This is not a distinction without a difference; for in the one case the abstract notion of Deity (which certainly excludes plurality) is contrasted with the absurdity of having many "one firsts and one lasts," and in the other case the Eternal power and Godhead, the traces of whose power and beneficence are seen in creation and providence, are set in contrast with demons and demoniacal characteristics.
Having made this suggestion, I will now cite the passages which suggested the thought to my own mind.
Deut. 32:15 (This is the first occurrence of the word): " Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God [Eloah] which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils not to Eloah: to gods [Elohim] whom they knew not, to new, [gods] that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not."
Is there not here a contrast between the one God and the so-called gods many? The song is of the Lord's own inditing (2 Chron. 32.13-15). The language is the scurrilous blasphemy of Sennacherib: " Know ye not what I and my Fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Were the gods [Elohim] of the nations... able to deliver... out of mine hand? Who among all the gods [Elohim] of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver out of my hand, that your God [Elohim] should be able to deliver you out of mine hand. Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you... for no god [Eloah] of any nation... how much less shall your god [Elohim] deliver you out of mine hand?"
Not one god of the many gods that Sennacherib could think of was a match for himself; so be thought, who saw not that himself was but a slave of Satan, and a scourge in the hand of the only true God.
Neh. 9:16-19: " Our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks... but thou art a God [Eloah] ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God [Elohim] that brought thee out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocation; yet Thou, in Thy manifold mercies, forsookest them not in the wilderness."
Psa. 18:30,31: " As for God [Elohim] His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried; He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. For who is God [Eloah] save the Lord [Jehovah]? Or who is a rock save our God [Elohim]?"
Psa. 50:21, 22: " Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, all ye that forget God [Eloah], lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."
Isa. 44:8-10: " Ye [Israel] are even my witnesses. Is there a God [Eloah] beside me? Yea there is no Rock; I know not any. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit: and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god [El], or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing." And see the vivid description of the making of the idol, and of the use of the residue of the materials out of which it is taken, in vers. 12-20.
Dan. 11:37-39: " Neither shall he regard the God [Elohim] of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God [Eloah]: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honor the God [Eloah-a god] of forces [Mahuzzim]; and a god [Eloah] whom his fathers knew not... Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange god [Eloah], whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory.
Hab. 1:11,12: " He shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god [Eloah]. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God. Mine Holy One? we shall not die, O Jehovah, Thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O Mighty God [Rock], Thou hast established them for correction."
Hab. 3:2, 3: " In wrath remember mercy. God [Eloah] came from Tertian, and the Holy One from Mount Paran."
It is worthy of note that Eloah occurs in Job alone forty times; Elohim less than twenty.
Elah is the Chaldee form of the word Eloah. Of the occurrences which do not number ninety-six, there are not more than ten in the plural, the rest are in the singular form. It is worthy of notice, that here in Chaldee, the singular form is the common one for the Supreme Being, "the God of heaven," as He is here constantly called, and the plural form is used as connected with unbelief.
Jer. 10:11. The Spirit is speaking of idol-makers: " Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens."
"The gods, whose dwelling. is not with flesh" (Dan. 2:11), would not, could not aid the magicians. "Your God is a God of gods" Or. 47), was the king's tribute of homage to Daniel. Dan. 3.12: The Jews, "O king... serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image;" and (3:18) "We will not serve thy gods," is the confession of the three servants of God. " The fourth is like unto the Son of God" (3:25) [a son of the gods]. 'Twas the thought of the king when he saw Him who is God and Son of God in the furnace: " and praised the gods of gold" (v. 4), " In whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods-the wisdom of the holy gods" (v. 11),
The spirit of the gods is in thee" (v. 14), " Thou hast praised the gods of silver" (v. 23).
Yet in the days of Daniel, Ezra, and Jeremiah, Elohim was a common title of God. Whether the non-use of the plural form, when speaking of Him, was connected with the idiom of the Chaldee language, or rather with the peculiarity of the circumstances and state of things and subjects, which the use of it by the servants of the living God supposed, I cannot say positively.
The three words, Elohim, El, Eloah, seem in common to present the idea of power as their meaning. They appear to me also evidently derived from the same root. Yet the abstract idea of power and might found in each, may be presented by them severally with a peculiarity distinctive to each particular form.
In re-perusing what I have written-and also the occurrences in. full in the " Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance"-I think three shades of meaning are presented, namely, that He whom we adore alone has creatorial power, victorious power, and stands thus in His very being, in contrast with all that are called gods.
These remarks contain, I am aware, little positive instruction-they are those of an inquirer rather than of a teacher; if others have not observed the fact, that this name of El exists, as well as those of Elohim and Eloah, the paper may serve a turn for good in calling the attention of some to these facts: it may serve also the good turn of calling the attention of those who have more light than has the writer of these remarks, to the general need for information upon this subject.