The Hebrew word, אלהים (el·o·hēm'), meaning God, has plural morphological form, but it is used with singular verbs and adjectives in the Hebrew text when the particular meaning of a singular deity is traditionally understood. Thus the very first words of the Bible are breshit bara elohim, where bara ברא is a verb inflected as third person singular masculine perfect. If Elohim were an ordinary plural word, then the plural verb form bar'u בראו would have been used in this sentence instead. Such plural grammatical forms are in fact found in cases where Elohim has semantically plural reference. There are a few other words in Hebrew that have a plural ending, but refer to a single entity and take singular verbs and adjectives, for example בעלים (be'alim, owner) in Exodus 21:29 and elsewhere.
The form of the word Elohim with the ending -im, is plural and masculine, but the construction is usually singular, i.e. it governs a singular verb or adjective when referring to God, but reverts to its normal plural when used of heathen divinities (Psalms 96:5; 97:7). One theory among orthodox Trinitarian Christian writers is that it is sometimes used as evidence for the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
A plural noun governing a singular verb may be according to oldest usage. The gods form a heavenly assembly where they act as one. In this context, the Elohim may be a collective plural when the gods act in concert. Compare this to English headquarters, which is plural but governs a singular verb: there are many rooms or quarters, but they all serve one purpose. Thus, it is argued, the meaning of Elohim therefore can mean one god, with many attributes.
It is worthy of note that, in the Biblical Hebrew the customary grammatical "plurality" of a word is often a grammatical plural. The use of "plural" forms for singular nouns is common in the Hebrew Bible, and often connotes quintessence, uniqueness, or might (though it may also connote plurality).
