The Names of God: Part 1 - Elohim

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Names Of God: Part 1 - Elohim

The Hebrew title Elohim (ʾĕlōhîm) is translated as God in English 2,310 times.

• For who is God (ʾĕlōhîm), but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God (ʾĕlōhîm), - Psalm 18:31

Elohim means the Mighty One, the Great One, or the Exalted One. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states that the term “ʾĕlōhîm comes from ʾĕlōah as a unique development of the Hebrew Scriptures and represents chiefly the plurality of persons in the Trinity of the godhead.”1

The title Elohim is used in relation to God’s sovereignty.

• …Who is called the God (ʾĕlōhîm) of all the earth. - Isaiah 54:5
• Behold, I am the Lord, the God (ʾĕlōhîm) of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?                           - Jeremiah 32:27
• Then the king said to me, What would you request? So I prayed to the God (ʾĕlōhîm) of heaven.                     - Nehemiah 2:4

Elohim is also used in relation to God's work of Creation.

• In the beginning God (ʾĕlōhîm) created the heavens and the earth - Genesis 1:1
• For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God (ʾĕlōhîm) who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), I am the Lord, and there is none else. - Isaiah 45:18
• He said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God (ʾĕlōhîm) of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. - Jonah 1:9  

The title Elohim is also associated with God’s judgment.  

• And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God (ʾĕlōhîm) Himself is judge. - Psalm 50:6
• And men will say, Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God (ʾĕlōhîm) who judges on earth! - Psalm 58:11

ENDNOTES:

1. ​Jack B. Scott, “93 אלה,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 41.