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El Shaddai
El Shaddai (Hebrew: אֵל שַׁדַּי, romanized: ʾĒl Šadday; IPA: [el ʃadːaj]) or just Shaddai is one of the names of God in Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated into English as God Almighty, as Deus Omnipotens in Latin, and in Arabic: إله الشديد, romanized: ʾIlāh Ash-Shadīd.
El means "God" in the Ugaritic and the Canaanite languages. The literal meaning of Shaddai, however, is the subject of debate. Some scholars have argued that it came from Akkadian shadû ("mountain"). Shaddai may have also come from shad שד meaning mammary; shaddai is a typical Biblical Hebrew word (שדי). The plural (Shaddayim -- שדיים) is the typical Modern Hebrew word for human breasts in dual grammatical number. This shows the maternal nature of God, as a nurturing Mother. The Deir Alla Inscription contains shaddayin as well as elohin rather than elohim. Scholars translate this as "shadday-gods," taken to mean unspecified fertility, mountain or wilderness gods.
The form of the phrase El Shaddai fits the pattern of the divine names in the Ancient Near East, exactly as is the case with names like ʾĒl ʿOlām, ʾĒl ʿElyon and ʾĒl Bēṯ-ʾĒl. As such, El Shaddai can convey several different semantic relations between the two words, among them: the deity of a place called Shaddai, a deity possessing the quality of shaddai and a deity who is also known by the name Shaddai. Other deities are attested in various cultures. One is Ammonite Šd-Yrḥ.
Third in frequency among divine names, the name Shaddai appears 48 times in the Bible, seven times as El Shaddai (five times in Genesis, once in Exodus, and once in Ezekiel).
The first occurrence of the name comes in Genesis 17:1, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be blameless,' Similarly, in Genesis 35:11 God says to Jacob, "I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." According to Exodus 6:2–3 Shaddai was the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In the vision of Balaam recorded in the Book of Numbers 24:4 and 16, the vision comes from Shaddai, who is also referred to as El ("God") and Elyon ("Most High"). In the fragmentary inscriptions at Deir Alla, shaddayin appear (Hebrew: שדין; the vowels are uncertain, as is the gemination of the d), perhaps lesser figurations of Shaddai. These have been tentatively identified with the šēdim "demons" (Hebrew: שדים) of Deuteronomy 32:17 (parashah Haazinu) and Psalm 106: 37–38, who are Canaanite deities.
The name Shaddai is often used in parallel to El later in the Book of Job, once thought to be one of the oldest books of the Bible, though now more commonly dated to a later period.
The Septuagint often translates Shaddai or El Shaddai just as "God" or "my God", and in at least one passage (Ezekiel 10:5) it is transliterated ("θεὸς σαδδαΐ"). In other places (such as Job 5:17) it appears as "Almighty" ("παντοκράτωρ"), and this word features in other translations as well, such as the 1611 King James Version.
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El Shaddai AI simulator
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El Shaddai
El Shaddai (Hebrew: אֵל שַׁדַּי, romanized: ʾĒl Šadday; IPA: [el ʃadːaj]) or just Shaddai is one of the names of God in Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated into English as God Almighty, as Deus Omnipotens in Latin, and in Arabic: إله الشديد, romanized: ʾIlāh Ash-Shadīd.
El means "God" in the Ugaritic and the Canaanite languages. The literal meaning of Shaddai, however, is the subject of debate. Some scholars have argued that it came from Akkadian shadû ("mountain"). Shaddai may have also come from shad שד meaning mammary; shaddai is a typical Biblical Hebrew word (שדי). The plural (Shaddayim -- שדיים) is the typical Modern Hebrew word for human breasts in dual grammatical number. This shows the maternal nature of God, as a nurturing Mother. The Deir Alla Inscription contains shaddayin as well as elohin rather than elohim. Scholars translate this as "shadday-gods," taken to mean unspecified fertility, mountain or wilderness gods.
The form of the phrase El Shaddai fits the pattern of the divine names in the Ancient Near East, exactly as is the case with names like ʾĒl ʿOlām, ʾĒl ʿElyon and ʾĒl Bēṯ-ʾĒl. As such, El Shaddai can convey several different semantic relations between the two words, among them: the deity of a place called Shaddai, a deity possessing the quality of shaddai and a deity who is also known by the name Shaddai. Other deities are attested in various cultures. One is Ammonite Šd-Yrḥ.
Third in frequency among divine names, the name Shaddai appears 48 times in the Bible, seven times as El Shaddai (five times in Genesis, once in Exodus, and once in Ezekiel).
The first occurrence of the name comes in Genesis 17:1, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be blameless,' Similarly, in Genesis 35:11 God says to Jacob, "I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." According to Exodus 6:2–3 Shaddai was the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In the vision of Balaam recorded in the Book of Numbers 24:4 and 16, the vision comes from Shaddai, who is also referred to as El ("God") and Elyon ("Most High"). In the fragmentary inscriptions at Deir Alla, shaddayin appear (Hebrew: שדין; the vowels are uncertain, as is the gemination of the d), perhaps lesser figurations of Shaddai. These have been tentatively identified with the šēdim "demons" (Hebrew: שדים) of Deuteronomy 32:17 (parashah Haazinu) and Psalm 106: 37–38, who are Canaanite deities.
The name Shaddai is often used in parallel to El later in the Book of Job, once thought to be one of the oldest books of the Bible, though now more commonly dated to a later period.
The Septuagint often translates Shaddai or El Shaddai just as "God" or "my God", and in at least one passage (Ezekiel 10:5) it is transliterated ("θεὸς σαδδαΐ"). In other places (such as Job 5:17) it appears as "Almighty" ("παντοκράτωρ"), and this word features in other translations as well, such as the 1611 King James Version.