Strength ; as adjective, mighty ; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity )
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אֵל (El) is the singular Hebrew divine name: God, the Mighty One, the strong one who stands above all. It stands behind many of the compound divine names that give Israel's God his full profile: El-Shaddai (God Almighty), El-Elyon (God Most High), El-Olam (God Everlasting), El-Roi (God Who Sees).
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Full entry for אֵל (H410) · Open the biblical lexicon
אֵל (El) is the singular Hebrew divine name: God, the Mighty One, the strong one who stands above all. It stands behind many of the compound divine names that give Israel's God his full profile: El-Shaddai (God Almighty), El-Elyon (God Most High), El-Olam (God Everlasting), El-Roi (God Who Sees).
The BSB source-word alignment has 241 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include God (100), of God (14), O God (9), the God (8), A God (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 14:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (77), Job (56), Isaiah (22), Genesis (18).
אֵל (El) is the singular Hebrew divine name: God, the Mighty One, the strong one who stands above all. It stands behind many of the compound divine names that give Israel's God his full profile: El-Shaddai (God Almighty), El-Elyon (God Most High), El-Olam (God Everlasting), El-Roi (God Who Sees).
El-Shaddai (אֵל שַׁדַּי, H410+H7706) is the name YHWH uses to introduce himself to Abraham in Genesis 17:1: 'I am El-Shaddai; walk before me and be blameless.' This is the name of the God who makes impossible promises and keeps them: El-Shaddai promises a son to a hundred-year-old man (Gen 17:19), and he delivers. The name El-Shaddai saturates the book of Job (31 occurrences in Job alone) — it is the name by which the sufferer appeals to the God whose power is beyond human calculation.
El-Elyon (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, H410+H5945) is the name Melchizedek uses in Genesis 14:18-20: 'Blessed be Abram of El-Elyon, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be El-Elyon who has delivered your enemies into your hand.' El-Elyon is the God who stands above all the gods of the nations — the God Most High whose sovereignty Abram acknowledges by tithing to his priest. Psalm 78:35 combines both names: 'they remembered that God (Elohim) was their rock and El-Elyon their Redeemer.'
El-Olam (אֵל עוֹלָם, H410+H5769) appears in Genesis 21:33: 'Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of YHWH, El-Olam.' The God Everlasting is the God who outlasts every human crisis and covenant threat. Abraham plants a slow-growing tree as if he will be there to see it mature — he is affirming that the God he worships is not a local or temporary deity but the everlasting God who will be there when the tree is full-grown and when all the trees of the earth are gone.
El-Roi (אֵל רֳאִי, H410+H7210) is Hagar's name for God in Genesis 16:13: 'She called the name of YHWH who spoke to her, You are El-Roi — for she said: Have I truly seen him here and remained alive after seeing him?' The God who sees is the God of the forgotten and the marginalized: Hagar is a slave woman, cast out, alone in the wilderness. El-Roi appears to her. This divine name is the OT's declaration that the God of Israel is not the God of the powerful only but of those whom no other eye watches.
Psalm 18:2 gives El its worship-form: 'YHWH is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God (El), my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold.' The psalmist stacks divine titles — rock, fortress, deliverer, El, rock, refuge, shield, horn, stronghold — each one a different facet of El's power and faithfulness. The bare name El at the center of this stack is like an axis: the Mighty One around whom all these facets revolve.
For the preacher, אֵל (El) gives the congregation their foundation-name for God: not a tribal deity, not a local spirit, but the Mighty One, the strong God, the El of whom all other powerful things are pale reflections.
אֵל (El) is used as the singular Hebrew divine name. It is the foundation for the compound divine names: El-Shaddai (Gen 17:1, Gen 49:25, Job 5:17), El-Elyon (Gen 14:18, Ps 78:35), El-Olam (Gen 21:33), El-Roi (Gen 16:13). It appears in Psalms as a title of power (Ps 18:2, Ps 68:20), in Job as the name of sovereign mystery (31 occurrences), and in Isaiah as the name of the incomparable God (Isa 40:18: 'To whom then will you compare El?')
Note: H430 Elohim (the plural divine name, already companioned separately) is related but distinct — El is the singular form emphasizing divine power and identity.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
El-Shaddai to Abraham: 'I am El-Shaddai (El-Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless (tamim).' This is the moment when the covenant God introduces himself to Abraham as the Almighty One — the El whose power is sufficient to do the impossible (give a son to a century-old man). The name El-Shaddai is the name of covenant-promise-keeping power. Shaddai (H7706) likely derives from shad (breast, sufficiency) or shadad (to be mighty) — El-Shaddai is the God of overwhelming, life-giving abundance.
Paul connects this to the resurrection in Romans 4:17 — Abraham's God is the one who 'gives life to the dead.'
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—
El-Elyon at Salem: 'Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of El-Elyon (God Most High).' Abraham's encounter with Melchizedek establishes El-Elyon as the God who is above all the competing divine powers of Canaan. Abraham's tithe to Melchizedek is his acknowledgment that his victories belong to El-Elyon, not to human military skill.
The name El-Elyon appears in the Psalms as the name of the universal sovereign (Ps 47:2, Ps 83:18, Ps 91:1) and in Hebrews 7 as the context for Jesus's Melchizedek-priesthood.
So Hagar gave this name to the Lord who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”
El-Roi to Hagar: 'She called the name of YHWH who spoke to her: El-Roi (You Are El Who Sees) — have I truly seen him here and remained alive?' El-Roi is the divine name born in the wilderness out of an encounter between God and the forgotten. Hagar is an Egyptian slave woman — she is outside the covenant community, outside the protection of human society. El-Roi appears to her, sees her, and names her son (Ishmael, 'God hears').
This is the OT's declaration that El is not the exclusive property of the powerful: he sees the unseen.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
El as refuge in Psalm 18: 'my El, my rock, in whom I take refuge.' David's great deliverance-psalm stacks fourteen names and images for YHWH across v. 2: rock, fortress, deliverer, El, rock, refuge, shield, horn of salvation, stronghold. The bare name El at the center is the Mighty One who undergirds all these relational descriptions. The psalm's El is not an abstract divinity but the personal God of David — 'my El' (eli) — the Mighty One who is also the covenant partner.
To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?
The incomparable El: 'To whom will you compare El? Or what likeness will you place beside him?' Isaiah 40's rhetorical climax asserts El's absolute incomparability. The nations have their gods (elilim, idols, H457) — lifeless images that craftsmen make (v. 19-20). El is beyond all comparison: the one who sits above the circle of the earth (v. 22), who brings princes to nothing (v.
23), Who calls the stars by name (v. 26). The name El here functions as the summary of all divine incomparability: there is no El beside him.
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Hebrew word. strength ; as adjective, mighty ; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity )
strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity) BDB: god Usage: God (god), × goodly, × great, idol, might(-y one), power, strong. Compare names in '-el.'
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
אֵל (El) is the name that places the God of Israel in relation to the entire cosmic order: he is the Mighty One, the El above all other competing claims to divine power. The compound names built on El give the congregation a multi-faceted portrait of who this Mighty One is. El-Shaddai (Gen 17:1): the God whose power is sufficient for the impossible promise. El-Elyon (Gen 14:18): the God whose sovereignty is above every human or demonic authority.
El-Olam (Gen 21:33): the God who outlasts every human crisis and covenant threat. El-Roi (Gen 16:13): the God who sees the forgotten and the marginalized. These are not four different gods but four facets of the one El — the Mighty One whose character is always the same but whose name shifts to address the specific need of the moment. When Abraham needs a son, El is Shaddai.
When he needs a cosmic reference point after victory, El is Elyon. When he plants a tree for the future, El is Olam. When Hagar is alone in the wilderness, El is Roi. The preacher's work with El is to help the congregation see that the name they are using when they say 'God' is not a generic religious title but the name of the El who introduced himself across Israel's history in these concrete, covenant-specific encounters.
Ps.18.2
אֵל (El) is the most basic Hebrew word for God — singular, three letters, a monosyllable that carries the full weight of divine identity. It appears in compound divine names as the first element (El-Shaddai, El-Elyon, El-Olam, El-Roi) and in personal names as a suffix or prefix: יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael, 'he who strives with El'), דָּנִיאֵל (Daniel, 'El is my judge'), מִיכָאֵל (Mikhael, 'who is like El'), גַּבְרִיאֵל (Gavriel, 'El is my hero').
In Aramaic (the language of portions of Daniel), the cognate is אֱלָה (Elah, H426). In Ugaritic literature, El is the chief deity, father of the gods — Israel's use of the name El for YHWH is a theological claim: the El of Israel is the real El, the one the surrounding nations' myths only dimly perceived. The NT's Aramaic inheritance gives us אֱלָהָא (Elaha/Alaha) → modern Arabic Allah.
El's singularity (as opposed to Elohim's plural form) makes it the clearest statement of monotheism in Hebrew: there is one El.
El appears in the NT primarily through the Greek Theos (G2316) and through the preserved Semitic forms. In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cries from the cross: 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' — quoting Psalm 22:1 ('My El, my El, why have you forsaken me?') in Aramaic/Hebrew. The bare name El/Eli is the address of the forsaken Son to the Mighty One who seems absent. This is the most theologically weighted use of El in the entire Scripture: the eternal Son addressing the Mighty One from the depths of abandonment.
Hebrews 7's Melchizedek typology draws on El-Elyon (Gen 14:18): Christ is the priest of El-Elyon in the order of Melchizedek. Revelation 4-5's worship scenes echo El-Shaddai: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty (Pantokrator, the Greek equivalent of El-Shaddai)' — the title of incomparable power is the refrain of the eternal worship.
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