Gen. i. 1.GODS, False Gods. The name of God, in Hebrew, Elohim, is very ambiguous in Scripture. The true God is often called so, as are sometimes Angels, Judges, and Princes, and sometimes Idols, and false אליליםGods: for example, God created the heaven and the earth; the Hebrew, Elohim, denotes Exod. xxii. 20.in this place the true God. Qui immolat diis occidetur: He who sacrifices to false Gods, (Elohim) shall be put to death. And Psal. lxxxv. 8.again, Non est similis tui in Diis, Domine, & non est secundum opera tua. There is no God who resembles thee, or who equals thy works. He is speaking of false Gods. In the Books of Moses, the name of God is often given to Angels; for example, the three Angels are called so, who appeared to Abraham, and preserved Lot; to him who appeared to Moses in the burning bush; and to him who led the Israelites in the wilderness. Lastly, Princes, Magistrates, and Great Men are called Gods in the following Passages: If a slave is desirous to continue Exod. xxi. 6.with his Master, he shall be brought to the Gods, Offeret eum Dominus Diis, to the Magistrates, the Judges, who shall pierce his ear with an awl. And again, Si latet fur, dominus domûs applicabitur ad Deos. If the Exod. xxii. 8.thief is not discovered, the master of the house shall be obliged to appear before the Gods, the Judges, the Magistrates. And in another place1, If one man sin against another, the Gods shall judge them, or reconcile them: they shall plead their cause before the Judges, &c. Thou shalt not speak evil Exod. xxii. 28.of the Gods; Diis non detrahes:Psal. lxxxi. 1. Psal. xlvi. 10. thou shalt not speak against the reputation of Judges, of Great Men. Josephus2 and Philo3 believe it to have been Moses’s design, to forbid in this place the speaking evil of strange Gods. The Psalmist says, that the Lord is seated amidst the Gods, and that he judges with them. Deus stetit in Synagoga deorum, in medio autem Deos dijudicat. And elsewhere, The Gods of the earth are gathered together. And again, Exod. vii. 1.God says to Moses, I have made thee a God Psal. xv. 4.to Pharaoh.
Good Israelites had so great an aversion, and such an extreme contempt for strange Gods, that they scorned even to name them: they disguised and disfigured their names by substituting in the room of them some term of contempt; for example, instead Elilim.of Elohim they called them Elilim, nothings, Gods of no value: instead of Miphibaal, and Meribaal, and Jerubaal, they said Mephibosheth, Meribosheth, and Jeribosheth. Baal signifies master, husband; and Bosheth something to be ashamed of, something apt to put one in confusion. Sometimes likewise they called Idols, Ordures, in Hebrew, Galulim, Stercora, or Dii Stercorei. God forbids the Israelites to Exod. xxiii. 13. Exod. xxiii. 13. Deut. xxix. 26.swear by strange Gods; and to pronounce the names of them in their oaths.
Moses says, the Israelites worshipped strange Gods, whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them; that is to say, Gods who were not their Gods, to whom they did not belong: which increases their ingratitude, and the crime of their rebellion. The Hebrew may be translated, strange Gods, and who had given them nothing. When we compare this passage with others of the Scripture, God seems to have abandoned other nations to strange Gods, to the Stars, and Idols, and to have reserved his own people to himself as his inheritance: not that he excuses or forgives the idolatry of other people; but it is without comparison less criminal than that of the Hebrews. Compare Deut. xxix. 26. with Deut. iv. 19. xvii. 3. Acts vii. 42. Jerem. xix. 13. 2 Kings xvii. 16. xxi. 3, 5. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3, 5. Amos v. 25, 26, 27. and see Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromat. l. 6. p. 669. and S. Justin’s Dial. cum Tryphone, p. 274.
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