LogFAQs > #972580684

I've been reading the Bible myself for literary purposes, and doing some extra research on top of that. The truth is that people believed in multiple gods during the time that the Old Testament takes place. There were opposing factions who only wanted to worship Yahweh, and those who wanted to worship Him in addition to other gods. The Yahweh-only faction won out in the end, and they were the ones who ended up writing the Bible. That long list of kings who did evil or good in the sight of the Lord? An indication of which factions they were part of.

Interestingly, Amos 4:11 has a remnant of these multiple gods in the KJV and NASB translations, but gets scrubbed from NIV and the like.

I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a log snatched from a fire;
Yet you have not returned to Me, declares the Lord.

If you look at the original Hebrew for this verse, God refers to Elohim while the Lord refers to Yahweh.