>>19125501I've been puzzling over how the word "elohim" is apparently plural yet takes apparently singular verbs when it acts as the subject of a sentence. I opened up A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language by Daniel Sivan and noticed there's no difference in spelling between 3rd person singular masculine perfect verbs and 3rd person dual masculine perfect verbs. The only vocal difference is a short vs long vowel. It's unclear what the fate of dual verbs was in Hebrew but there's no particular reason why they would insist on explicit spelling of all vowels when the subject of the sentence clarifies the number of the verb.
In other words, it's possible that "elohim" is actually supposed to be vocalized as "elohayim" in most contexts and this would make it a dual noun. This means "two gods", so it could be referring to El and his wife Asherah. This interpretation helps make sense of Gen 1:27 where mankind is made both male and female despite being made in the image of elohim (or rather elohayim)
