Robert Alter on El Shaddai

Robert Alter (Hebrew Bible):

El Shaddai. The first term, as in El Elyon (chapter 14), means God. Scholarship has been unable to determine the origins or precise meaning of the second term—tenuous associations have been proposed with a Semitic word meaning "mountain" and with fertility. What is clear (compare Exodus 6:3) is that the biblical writers considered it an archaic name of God.

G.J. Wenham (WB Commentary on Genesis):



For another potential explanation of El Shaddai, see John Skinner, ICC on Genesis, pages 290-291.