Is there any GOD beside ME? "I know not any”

,שרים

And it is expressly contrasted with the Heathen False gods, styled D'T", " Al"mighties," Deut. xxxii. 17, (rendered " De“vils" in our translation.)

They sacrificed to false gods, and not to GoD†:
To gods whom they knew not; to new-comers,
Whom your Fathers feared not:-Of the Rock that
begat thee,

Thou art unmindful! and hast forgotten THE GODS that bare thee!

Here again (as corrected by twentythree MSS. Kennicot instead of x) and are plainly synonymous: and the plural,

, applied to the Heathen false gods; like D', ''by, &c. which, in the singular, had been originally appropriated to the true God, before the introduction of Idolatry and Polytheism; and as '18, an epithet of "THE GOD of Jacob," Gen. xlviii. 24, is rendered Auvagns, "Potentate," by the Septuagint Version, which is applied, 1 Tim. vi. 15, to "THE BLESSED and ONLY POTEN

.אל $

אלהים !

אלוה +

* .אלוה

"TATE

"TATE," it may not unreasonably be con→ sidered as the most appropriate rendering of

-which is used no less than fifty-two times in the purely Hebrew Scriptures, to denote the true God; and only five times misapplied to express a false god; as of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrians, &c. 2 Chron. xxxii. 15, Habac. i. 11, and Dan. xi. 37-38.

Who then can read without astonishment, mingled with pity and indignation, the following rash and most unfounded assertion of Parkhurst, Heb. Lex. p. 23: "It may be “doubted, whether n [rather ] in the "singular, be ever in the Hebrew, (as dis"tinct from the Chaldee,) used as a name

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for JEHOVAH the true God: I can find "but two passages, namely, Deut. xxxii. " 17, and Dan. xi. 38, where it may seem "to be so applied !"

III. x. εOF, GODS; E05, GOD; : Παντοκρατωρ, οι ὁ μόνος Δεσποτης, THE OMNIPOTENT, or SOVEREIGN.

1.The plural,

8, is rendered eos," gods,”

in a multitude of passages, denoting, 1. the false gods or Idols of the Heathen, as in the

foregoing

foregoing instance, Deut. xxxii. 17, Exod. xxii. 20, Jer. x. 11, &c. &c. 2. Angels, as in Ps. viii. 6, xcvi. 8, &c. where the original, Dbx, "gods," is so interpreted by the Ancient Versions, and by Heb. ii. 9, and i. 6, intimating the application of both passages to JESUS CHRIST.

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"Thou hast made HIM a little lower than "the Angels;" [during his incarnation.] Worship HIM all ye Angels of GOD." Where it denotes Judges or Magistrates, considered as the Delegates or Vicegerents of GOD, invested with his Authority, and armed with his power, Rom. xiii. 1-5, 1 Pet. ii. 13-17, as in the following passages, Exod. xxi. 6, and xxii. 8, where '58, the emphatic plural, is rendered in both **, “ the Judges," by the Syriac and Chaldee Par. and by the Vulgate "Judices;" and by the Arabic in both " Judge” — deserting the Septuagint Version, its usual guide; which renders, in the former passage, wрos to upstηpiov тe Oɛɛ, “ to the tribunal of God:" and in the latter, evπTION TY ☺EX, “before God:" on which Parkhurst, misled by Gusset, forms "his imagination," that □ did not signify

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Rulers

Rulers or Judges," Heb. Lex. p. 23. Whence the B. C. Feb. p. 150, has hazarded the unguarded assertion-that "not a single unquestionable instance is to be found in the

"whole Bible, of the application of the word "to any such persons."

Besides these two instances;-in which

פלליס is plainly of the same iniport with האלהים

Pelilim, in the intermediate passage, Exod.

7,

xxi. 22 ; which the Syriac Version and Chaldee Paraph. (as in Job,) likewise render "the Judges"-there is a third, in which its application is most unquestionable ;—decided by the authority of JESUS CHRIST himself, in his admirable Argumentum ad hominem, addressed to the Jews; who were going to stone him for blasphemy; "because," said they, "Thou being a Man, (avbρwπoç,) makest

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thyself a God, (tov)" JESUS answered them, Is it not written in your law, (Ps. lxxxii. 6,) "I said ye are gods?" &c. If [then] He called them [the Judges] gods, to whom THE ORACLE OF GOD came; and the Scripture cannot be broken, [or controverted,] How say ye of HIм whom THE FATHER Consecrated, and sent forth into the world, "Thou

M

"Thou blasphemest :" because I said, "I am "THE SON OF GOD?" John x. 33-36. Surely if D, in the Psalm cited, did not signify the Judges of the Jewish Sanhedrim, invested with the high privilege of expounding the divine oracles, and deciding, as Delegates, in cases of conscience and criminal causes, and giving counsel in state affairs, OUR LORD's argument must be imperfect and invalid: but it is complete and unanswerable; rising from their own concession in a lower instance,-in the case of ordinary mortals, styled gods,-to himself, the eternal, and only genuine SON OF GOD;—and therefore a fortiori, entitled to the appellation of A GOD, (805,) in the strictest sense of the word. And indeed Parkhurst himself admits, that" in this last text, (Ps. lxxxii.

6,) the word is applied to earthly magistrates or judges."-And he rightly observes," that it is only in a comparative "or metaphorical sense ;--the prefixed ar❝ticle, 6 as,' or ' like,' being understood "here"as it is actually expressed in the latter clause of the sentence, Ps. lxxxii. 6.

2

“I said,