Elohim
Hebrew divine name used in the Tanakh
Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים, romanized: ʾĔlōhīm [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im]) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural in form (as an abstract noun referring to the concept of "divinity"), in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the God of Judaism. In other verses it takes plural agreement and refers to gods in the plural. It is also the word used for judges.
Morphologically, the word is the plural form of the word אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĔlōah) and is related to El (אֵל ʾēl). It is cognate to the Ugaritic word ʾ-l-h-m (block script transliteration אלהם), which is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El, and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most uses of the term ʾElohim in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for Deity, is distinct from generic usage as elohim, "gods" (plural, simple noun).
Grammar and etymology
The word elohim or 'elohiym (ʼĕlôhîym) is a grammatically plural noun for "gods" or "deities" or various other words in Biblical Hebrew such as judges.
In Hebrew, the ending -im normally indicates a masculine plural. However, when referring to the Jewish/Israelite God, Elohim is usually understood to be grammatically singular (i.e., it governs a singular verb or adjective).
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This entry incorporates text from “Elohim” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.