The Incomparable Yahweh, Even Among All the Other Gods

 

 

THE MYTHOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF PSALM 82

Juliann Morgenstern, Hebrew Union College Annual, 14 1939: 66-68,  noted some interesting things about the Council of the Gods that is worth understanding.  

 

In the Psalms we come across this picture of Yahweh in the midst of the assembly of the gods again and again. In Ps. 89.6-9 we read:

 

The heavens praise Thy wondrousness, O Yahweh, Likewise Thy trustworthiness in the assembly of the gods.

For who in the skies can be compared with Yahweh; Who among the gods is like unto Yahweh?

A god who inspires awe in the council of the gods, Who is great and fearful beyond all those who surround Him.

 

Ps. 29.1-2 summons these same gods to do homage before Yahweh, to bow down before Him and praise His name, while Ps. 97.7b likewise bids all the gods to bow down before Yahweh and Ps. 148.2 commands His angels, all those who constitute His host, to praise Him. Ps. 97.9b records that Yahweh is supreme over all the gods, Ps. 96.4 ( = 1 Chron. 16.25) that Yahweh is to be feared over all the gods, and Ps. 95.3 that Yahweh is a great king over all the gods. Yahweh's throne is in heaven; it exists from of old, i. e. from before creation. Upon this throne He sits as a king and righteous judge, who judges all the universe justly.

 

Therefore Ps. 76.9-10 can tell that Yahweh's  judgment comes from heaven, and Ps. 18.8-16 ( = 2 Sam. 22.8-16); 50.1-4; 96.13; 98.9 and 1 Chron. 16.33 can speak of  Yahweh's coming for judgment upon His own people and upon  the nations, with His coming acclaimed by heaven and earth, by ocean and rivers, mountains and trees of the forest and by the universe and all its inhabitants, and marked by storm and flame and even by earthquake so severe that the entire contour of the earth is changed. As has been recognized by various scholars, all these are merely details of Yahweh's coming, in the form of the k^ebod Yahweh, and in His capacity as universal king and judge, upon the New Year's Day.

 

The scriptures he uses are numerous to depict this scene.

Following the translation of Butten wieser, though with certain minor variations. That kedoshim (significantly without the article) in vv. 6 and 8 means the gods, Yahweh's divine attendants, and that these kedoshim are identical with the bene 'elim (also without the article) of v. 7 and kol sebibaw of v. 8 is beyond all question and is confirmed by the consideration that in v. 6 these kedoshim obviously dwell in heaven. For rabbah in v. 8 read rab and for considerations of meter as well as context link it with 8b rather than with 8a.

 Bene 'elim, the same term as in Ps. 89.7.-

w 'Elohim, likewise without the article.

 Isa. 66.1 (cf. 14.13); Ps. 11.4; 103. 19.

 Ps. 93.2; Lam. 5.19; Jer. 17.12 (however, not from the prophet himself).

 Ps. 9.5, 8; 96.10; cf. also Ps. 47.9; 97.2 and likewise Ezek. 1.26; 10.1; cf. also the basic concept of Ρ of Yahweh enthroned upon the ark in the holy of holies. In other words even to Ρ the concept of Yahweh enthroned in the holy of holies, the counterpart of the earlier debir, was basic. Here the thought suggests itself that what stood originally in the debir of Solomon's Temple was an image of Yahweh seated upon a lofty throne, a throne represented perhaps as resting upon the backs of cherubim, conceived, of course, after the conventional Phoenician pattern (cf. Gressmann, AOTB, I, nos. 323; 335 and especially the second god-figure in the procession). It was this image which was bathed in light regularly upon each recurring New Year's Day, when the veil before the debir was drawn aside and the first rays of the rising sun, shining directly in through the open eastern gate and down the long axis of the Temple, illumined the debir for a brief moment. It was no doubt the passing glimpse of this now illuminated image which suggested to the imaginative mind of the people that for this moment Yahweh had come in  radiant form, in His kabod, into the Temple. This image was probably identical with the mifieset which Maacah, the mother of Asa, had made and set up in the Jerusalem Temple, probably in place of a similar but less rich and ornate image placed there by Solomon at the time of the erection of the Temple.

Comments

[Russ]

Which translation of the bible are you using? I have the KJV and I do not see it written that way.

[Anthony]

Would the "Sons of the mighty" be considered gods, or the kedoshim? Interesting post, just trying to grasp it.