2. The son of Parnach and the chieftain of the sons of Zebulun who was among those appointed at Jehovah’s direction to divide the Promised Land into inheritance portions.—Num. 34:25.

ELIZUR

(E·liʹzur) [God is a rock].

Son of Shedeur of the tribe of Reuben; one of the twelve chieftains who assisted Moses and Aaron in numbering the sons of Israel. (Num. 1:1-3, 5, 17; 2:10; 10:18) In addition to sharing in the group presentation made by the chieftains after the setting up of the tabernacle, Elizur represented his tribe individually as its chieftain in presenting an offering on the fourth day for the inauguration of the altar.—Num. 7:1, 2, 10, 30-35.

ELKANAH

(El·kaʹnah) [God has created or taken possession].

1. A Levite identified along with Assir and Abiasaph as sons of the rebellious Korah, but who did not share the fate of their father. (Ex. 6:24; Num. 26:11) He is possibly the Elkanah mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:23.

2. The second of four Levite Kohathites named Elkanah and listed in Chronicles. He is identified as the father of Amasai and Ahimoth, and appears to have been the son of Joel.—1 Chron. 6:25, 36.

3. The third of the above Levites; seemingly the son of Mahath.—1 Chron. 6:26, 35.

4. The son of Jeroham and the father of Samuel the prophet, as well as of other sons and daughters. Elkanah was a resident of Ramah of the mountainous region of Ephraim. Hence he is called an Ephraimite, although genealogically he was a Levite. (1 Sam. 1:1; 1 Chron. 6:27, 33, 34) It was Elkanah’s practice to go from year to year to Shiloh “to prostrate himself and to sacrifice to Jehovah.” He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Although Hannah continued barren, Elkanah loved her and tried to console her for being barren. Later, in answer to Hannah’s prayer, Jehovah blessed them with the birth of Samuel, and still later with three sons and two daughters.—1 Sam. 1:2, 3, 5, 8, 19; 2:21.

5. A Levite ancestor of a certain Berechiah.—1 Chron. 9:16.

6. One of the Korahites who were apparently residing in the territory of Benjamin and who “came to David at Ziklag while he was still under restrictions because of Saul.”—1 Chron. 12:1, 2, 6.

7. One of the gatekeepers for the Ark at the time David had it transferred to Jerusalem from the house of Obed-edom; possibly the same as No. 6.—1 Chron. 15:23, 25.

8. An official who occupied a position next to King Ahaz of Judah and who was slain by Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, when Pekah the king of Israel invaded Judah.—2 Chron. 28:6, 7.

ELKOSHITE

(Elʹkosh·ite).

A resident of Elkosh. “Elkoshite” is applied only to the prophet Nahum. (Nah. 1:1) Some would place Elkosh in Galilee; however, Nahum may have been in Judah at the time of its composition. (Vs. 15) If so, this would make the suggested identity with Judean site Beit Jibrin, four miles (6.4 kilometers) NE of Lachish, the most likely proposal. The identification, however, remains tentative.

ELLASAR

(El·laʹsar) [oak].

A kingdom or city over which Arioch reigned in the time of Abraham and Lot. (Gen. 14:1) Many scholars once identified it with the ancient Chaldean town of Larsa, situated in Lower Mesopotamia on the Euphrates’ E bank, nearly midway between Erech and Ur of the Chaldees. This site, about twenty-eight miles (c. 45 kilometers) NE of Ur, is now called Senkereh. Ancient Larsa originally had its own rulers, but it came under Babylonian control after the days of Hammurabi.

The identification of Ellasar with Larsa resulted from reading the name of one of its kings in cuneiform inscriptions as Eri-Aku, some associating this name with Arioch. However, the name “Eri-Aku” is now considered to be more accurately read as “Warad-Sin.” As it is, many scholars now doubt that Ellasar is to be identified with ancient Larsa (the modern Senkereh) and some suggest that Ellasar was Ilanzura, a northern Mesopotamian town to which the Mari texts refer. This location is quite some distance NW of Larsa and is between Carchemish and Haran. Letters of Zimri-lim, a king of Mari who is said to have ruled about 1700 B.C.E., speak of a certain Arriyuk, perhaps a vassal. But linking him with the Biblical Arioch seems unsuitable because Arioch was living in Abraham’s day and the patriarch had an encounter with him much earlier, during the twentieth century B.C.E. Hence, positive identification of ancient Ellasar with a known present-day site still poses a problem for researchers.

King Arioch of Ellasar joined forces with Kings Amraphel of Shinar, Chedorlaomer of Elam and Tidal of Goiim in warring against the kings of the rebelling city-states of the Low Plain of Siddim, or the Salt Sea, that is, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela (Zoar). The rebels were defeated and Lot, then dwelling at Sodom, was taken captive and carried off toward the N. However, Abram (Abraham), with Mamre, Aner and Eshcol as his confederates, overtook the four kings’ combined forces at Dan. There he put them to flight, rescuing Lot and the people and recovering the goods.—Gen. 14:1-16, 24.

ELMADAM

(El·maʹdam).

An ancestor of Jesus’ earthly mother Mary.—Luke 3:28.

ELNAAM

(Elʹna·am) [God is pleasantness].

The father of Jeribai and Joshaviah, two mighty men of David’s military forces.—1 Chron. 11:46.

ELNATHAN

(El·naʹthan) [God has given].

1. The father of King Jehoiachin’s mother Nehushta. (2 Ki. 24:8) Likely he is the Elnathan identified as the “son of Achbor” and whom King Jehoiakim sent down to Egypt to bring back the prophet Urijah. (Jer. 26:22, 23) Interestingly, one of the Lachish letters dating from this period mentions the name Elnathan, saying: “The commander of the host, Coniah son of Elnathan, hath come down in order to go into Egypt.”

2, 3, 4. Three men bearing the name Elnathan are mentioned in the book of Ezra. Two are designated as “head ones” and the other as an instructor. At the river Ahava, before making the trip to Jerusalem, Ezra gave them a command to appeal to Iddo and the Nethinim at Casiphia to provide from their number ministers for the house of God, to which the Levites and the Nethinim responded.—Ezra 8:15-20.

ELOHIM

(El·o·himʹ) [Heb., ʼelo·himʹ (gods), plural of ʼeloʹah (god)].

This Hebrew word is of uncertain derivation, but it is generally thought to be from a root meaning “to be strong.” ʼElo·himʹ is the plural of ʼeloʹah, sometimes in the numerical sense (Gen. 31:30, 32; 35:2), but more often it signifies the plural of majesty, dignity or excellence, ʼElo·himʹ is used in the Scriptures with reference to Jehovah himself, to angels, to idol gods (singular and plural) and to men.—Gen. 1:1; Ps. 8:5, NW, 1950 ed., ftn.; Judg. 16:23; Ex. 20:23; Ps. 82:6.

JEHOVAH

When applying to Jehovah, ʼElo·himʹ is used in the sense of majesty, dignity or excellence, and takes the singular verb, adjective and pronoun. At Psalm 7:9 it is used with an adjective in the singular number: ʼElo·himʹ tsad·diqʹ, ‘righteous God.’ On this Gesenius-Kautzsch’s Hebrew Grammar, 1949 edition, pages 398, 399, paragraph “g,” says: “The pluralis excellentiae or maiestatis, as has been remarked above, is properly a variety of the abstract plural, since it sums up the several characteristics belonging to the idea, besides possessing the secondary sense of an intensification of the original idea. It is thus closely related to the plurals of amplification, . . . which are mostly found in poetry. So especially El·o·himʹ Godhead, God (to be distinguished from the numerical plural gods, Exodus 12:12, &c.). The supposition that El·o·himʹ is to be regarded as merely a remnant of earlier polytheistic views (that is, as originally only a numerical plural) is at least highly improbable, and, moreover, would not explain the analogous plurals. . . . That the language has entirely rejected the idea of numerical plurality in El·o·himʹ (whenever it denotes one God), is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a singular attribute . . . , for example, El·o·himʹ tsad·diqʹ, Psalm 7:10 [9, English], &c. Hence El·o·himʹ may have been used originally not only as a numerical but also as an abstract plural (corresponding to the Latin numen, and our Godhead), and, like other abstracts of the same kind, have been transferred to the concrete single god (even of the heathen).”

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volume II, page 1265, comments: “It is characteristic of Heb[rew] that extension, magnitude and dignity, as well as actual multiplicity, are expressed by the pl[ural]. It is not reasonable, therefore, to assume that plurality of form indicates primitive Sem[itic] polytheism. On the contrary, historic Heb[rew] is unquestionably and uniformly monotheistic.” Moses wrote at Deuteronomy 6:4: “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.”

As applied to Jehovah, the title ʼElo·himʹ draws attention to him as the Creator. It appears thirty-five times in the account of creation, and every time the verb describing what he said and did is in the singular number. (Gen. 1:1–2:4) In Him resides the sum and substance of infinite forces.

ANGELS

At Psalm 8:4, 5, the angels are also referred to as ʼelo·himʹ, as is confirmed by Paul’s quotation of the passage at Hebrews 2:6-8. They are called b^enehʹ ha-ʼElo·himʹ, “sons of God,” AV; “sons of the true God,” NW, at Genesis 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1. Of this phrase, the above-quoted Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar on p. 418, par. 2, says that it “properly means not sons of god(s), but beings of the class of elohimʹ.” Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, by Koehler and Baumgartner (1953 ed.), page 134, says: “(individual) divine beings, gods.” And on page 51: “the (single) gods Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7.” Hence, at Psalm 8:5 it is rendered “angels,” LXX; “godlike ones,” NW.

OTHERS

The word ʼelo·himʹ is also used when referring to idol gods. Sometimes this plural form means simply “gods.” (Ex. 12:12; 20:23) At other times it is the plural of excellence and only one god (or goddess) is referred to; these gods were not trinities. (1 Sam. 5:7b [Dagon]; 1 Ki. 11:5 [“goddess” Ashtoreth]; Dan. 1:2b [Marduk]) In view of this, the use of the plural ʼElo·himʹ, when referring to Jehovah, cannot be cited in support of the trinity doctrine. Furthermore, when trinitarians, who oppose polytheism, argue that ʼElo·himʹ, when referring to the true God, signifies the numerical plural “gods,” they make themselves polytheists, contrary to the definition of their trinity doctrine that there are three persons in one God, not three gods.

At Psalm 82:1, 6, ʼelo·himʹ is used of men, human judges in Israel. Jesus quoted from this Psalm at John 10:34, 35. Since the nature of men is not spirit but flesh, in what sense may they be gods? In their capacity as representatives of and spokesmen for Jehovah. Moses was told that he was to “serve as God” to Aaron and to Pharaoh. (Heb., ʼElo·himʹ; LXX, Gr., ho The·osʹ)—Ex. 4:16; see also Exodus 7:1.

In many places in the Scriptures ʼElo·himʹ is also found preceded by the definite article ha. The first of these appear at Genesis 5:22, 24, where a footnote in the New World Translation (1953 ed.) reads: “Use of the article here is deliberate, doubtless because of the move toward false worship indicated shortly before this at Genesis 4:26.” Concerning the use of the article Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, previously quoted, says on pages 404, 405: “The article is, generally speaking, employed to determine a substantive wherever it is required by Greek and English; thus: . . . (d) When terms applying to whole classes are restricted (simply by usage) to particular individuals . . . ” Ha-ʼElo·himʹ, translated as “the one true God,” is then given as an example of this, along with the same usage in other cases, for example, “the adversary,” denoting the opponent of God, Satan; also “the (first) man,” Adam. Accordingly, the New World Translation (1961 ed.) renders ha-ʼElo·himʹ as “the [true] God.”

The singular form ʼEloʹah is also used with reference to Jehovah (Deut. 32:15) and other gods. (Hab. 1:11) ʼEloʹah is found forty-one times in Job out of a total of the fifty-seven times it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures. The word that corresponds to ʼElo·himʹ in Aramaic is ʼEla·hinʹ and occurs thirteen times in the Aramaic part of Daniel, beginning at Daniel 2:47.

ELON

(Eʹlon) [oak, oak grove, terebinth, strong].

1. A Hittite whose daughter became “a source of bitterness” to Isaac and Rebekah as the wife of their son Esau.—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:46; 28:8; 36:2.

2. The second of Zebulun’s three sons, and one of his grandfather Jacob’s household who went into Egypt in 1728 B.C.E. He was also the family head of the Elonites.—Gen. 46:14; Num. 26:26.

3. A Zebulunite judge of Israel. After a judgeship of ten years they buried him in Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.—Judg. 12:11, 12.

4. A town of the tribe of Dan, listed between Ithlah and Timnah. (Josh. 19:42, 43) Identification of its location is uncertain.

ELON-BETH-HANAN

(Eʹlon-beth-haʹnan) [big tree of the house of Hanan].

A city mentioned at 1 Kings 4:9 as forming part of one of Solomon’s commissariat districts.

ELONITES

(Eʹlon·ites).

A family descended from Zebulun’s son Elon.—Num. 26:26.

ELOTH

SEE ELATH, ELOTH.

ELPAAL

(El·paʹal) [possibly, God of doing or creating].

A descendant of Benjamin; a son of Shaharaim by his wife Hushim.—1 Chron. 8:1, 8, 11, 12.

EL-PARAN

(El-paʹran) [big tree of Paran].

Apparently the southernmost point reached by Chedorlaomer and his allies in their invasion of Canaan. (Gen. 14:5, 6) Its description as “at the wilderness” or, “on the border of the wilderness” (RS), appears to place it on the eastern edge of the “wilderness of Paran.” (Gen. 21:21) Some scholars consider El-paran to be an ancient name for Elath.

ELPELET

See ELIPHELET No. 2.

ELTEKEH

(Elʹte·keh) (Elteke).

A city of Dan (Josh. 19:44) given, with its pasture ground, to the Kohathite, Levites. (Josh. 21:20, 23) On the “Taylor Prism” Assyrian King Sennacherib (a contemporary of Hezekiah, 745-716 B.C.E.) boasts that he “besieged, captured, and sacked Eltekeh [Assyrian Altaqu]” after defeating Egyptian and Ethiopian forces “upon the plain of Eltekeh.”

Most authorities formerly placed Eltekeh at Khirbet el-Muqanna, about twenty-five miles (40.2 kilometers) W of Jerusalem. However, as a result of recent excavations, that site has since been connected with