Duane Smith posted earlier today on Judges 9:13, which includes a reference to wine as cheering “both gods and people.” Among other interesting things, Duane observed that the “illusion allusion to the gods finding cheer in the pressings of the vine has caused problems for both teetotalers (or at least those who think it unseemly for God or the gods to drink wine) and monotheists.” I got curious about how English translations have rendered the verse, presuming that most translators of English Bibles have probably been monotheists. KJV, NJPS, NLT, ASV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, and WEB translate ‏אֱלֹהִים as the singular “God” (the tranlators supplying a capital G), while the NIV, NRSV, NAB, NJB, NEB, and NCV translate ‏אֱלֹהִים as the plural “gods” (the translators using a lower-case g). I imagine that some translators have less of a problem with thinking of Jotham as a polytheist than with thinking of Yahweh as a winebibber.