The Jewish Encyclopedia says that the early Hebrews were “monolatrous rather than monotheistic; they considered Yhwh to be the one God and their God, but not the one and only God.”17 Yahweh was “the national God of Israel as Chemosh was the god of Moab and Milkom the god of Ammon.”18 That there was “no other God in Israel…did not affect the reality of the gods of other nations.”19
