Deuteronomy 4:7

For what great nation … hath a god so nigh Both noun, élohím, and adj., ḳerobim, are plural. Elohîmmay signify a god, or gods, as Deuteronomy 6:14 and elsewhere; or the general idea of Deity, this chiefly but not always in the mouth of, or addressed to, the heathen, e.g. Deuteronomy 5:24; Genesis 20:13; Exodus 31:18; or may stand for the God of Israel (cp. the deuteronomic 2 Samuel 7:23). Here it is either of the first three a god, godsor God (R.V. marg.). The rest of the verse explains what is meant by nigh: He hears prayer and answers it by actual deeds. The prophets" contrast of Israel's experience of God with that of other nations is constant and remarkable a proof of the experimental, practical quality of their religion. Jeremiah insists that the gods of the heathen are vanitiesand do not profitthem (Deuteronomy 2:8; Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 2:13: broken cisterns, 28, Deuteronomy 16:19 f. etc.); cp. the Prophet of the Exile (Isaiah 44:9 f., Isaiah 47:12; Isaiah 48:17) and his argument that Jehovah alone promises and fulfils (Isaiah 41:21 ff.). To all the prophets, but especially to Isaiah, God; is not only the infinitely sublime, but the infinitely near, hearing prayer, ready to help, interested, vigilant and active in all the details of their everyday life. Legal Judaism lost this sense of the constant nearness of God, and did not compensate for the loss by its apocalypses.