God's Incomparability, Not Solitary Existence

Deuteronomy says there is no god besides Yahweh. Deuteronomy also says the nations were allotted to other elohim, and that Israel sacrificed to shedim. Both statements sit in the same book, sometimes a few chapters apart.
The denial statements are not claims that nothing else exists. They are claims about rank. No other elohim compares to Yahweh; he is of a different order altogether.
Isaiah settles it. Babylon says of herself that there is none besides me. Nobody imagines Babylon was claiming to be the only city on earth. It is a boast about supremacy, and Scripture uses the same form of speech about God.
Scripture links:
- Deuteronomy 4:35 - there is no other besides him.
- Deuteronomy 32:17 - Israel sacrificed to shedim, to gods they had not known.
- Isaiah 47:8 - Babylon uses that same phrase of herself.
God is not alone in the unseen world. He is incomparable within it, which is the larger claim.