"... Kasper states that ancient Israel believed God has “the attitude of a father.” Marsh similarly affirms that the usage of “Father” as a divine appellation in the Tanakh “is clearly a metaphor, an image employed to express some aspect or aspects of God’s relationship with God’s people.” Moreover, Jeremiah the prophet indicates that God’s paternity with respect to Israel is symbolic or metaphorical, when he speaks of YHWH “becoming” a Father to Israel (Jeremiah 31:9 NRSV). Therefore, it seems that the paternal title for deity is a well-established metaphor in ancient Judaism: the expression appears to form part of an avowed unfamiliar identity synthesis that communicates the notion of God electing or providentially guiding Israel, the historical seed of Abraham (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8). Consequently, although the communal address “our Father” is “relatively late,” (according to Vermes) the metaphor of God as Father (ab) to the Israelite nation appears to have been a prominent leitmotif in the sacred documents of early Judaism (See Tobit 13:4; Antiquities 5.93) ..."