ʾĒl Šadday

Semantic range

1. 1traditionally: the Almighty
2. 2possibly from šad, breast — God who nourishes and makes fruitful
3. 3possibly from an Akkadian word for mountain — God of the mountain

The patriarchal name for God. Exodus 6:3 states the arrangement directly: God appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as ʾĒl Šadday, but by the name YHWH He was not known to them. The title clusters in Genesis precisely where fruitfulness and posterity are at stake — Genesis 17:1, immediately before the covenant of circumcision and the promise of nations; Genesis 28:3; Genesis 49:25, in a blessing explicitly of "the breasts, and of the womb."

That distribution is why many scholars find the derivation from šad persuasive. Whatever the etymology, the name is attached to a God who makes barren people into families — the covenant promise Latter-day Saints inherit through Abraham (Abraham 2:9–11).

See also

• אֱלֹהִיםʾĕlōhîm
• יהוהYHWH (Yahweh)
• בְּרִיתbərît