YHWH

(Jehovah, Lord) Yāhweh

Here is a fascinating name indeed. Despite years of scholarship, little is known of the word YHWH (Yāhweh, 3068) outside the text of Scripture. Even its original pronunciation has been lost because for centuries Jews would not even utter it, sometimes out of reverence but more often out of superstition. While the true pronunciation is not known with absolute certainty, the Encyclopedia Judaica claims that Yāhweh is the most likely pronunciation.

Up until the Middle Ages (AD 800–900) only the consonants YHWH (called the Tetragrammaton) appeared in the Hebrew Bible, at which time the vowels from another name of God, ’Aḏōnāy (136), were added with the hope of recovering the pronunciation. Today, some Jewish students and scholars read ’Aḏōnāy (Lord) when they see the Tetragrammaton, although most of them just say Hashshem (“the Name”), and most traditional English translations indicate this by using the word Lord in small capital letters.

On the other hand, YHWH is actually more fully defined in Scripture than all God’s other names and is the most significant, appearing 5,321 times in the OT. It comes from the Hebrew verb meaning “to be or exist” (hāyāh, 1961) and therefore emphasizes God’s self-existence and unchangeableness, as He revealed Himself to Moses saying, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exod. 3:14), that is, “I Am the One Who Is.” It was this name, in fact, that God chose as His personal name.

Jehovah is also the name that is specifically God’s “covenant name,” the name He usually used when making covenants and giving promises to His people, such as Noah (Gen. 8:20–9:27), Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3; 13:14–17; 15:1–18), and Moses (Exod. 20:1–31:18). In those passages, in fact, we find the word YHWH some sixty-eight times.

One of the chief uses of this name for God relates to His work of redemption. Leviticus 26:45, for example, declares, “I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord [Jehovah].” Psalm 19:14 pro- claims, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord [Jehovah], my strength, and my redeemer.”

Oh, let us rejoice in the revelation of God this word provides and the redemption it represents.

Scriptures for Study: How many times do you find the word Lord (Yāhweh) coupled with the word God (’Elōhiym) in Genesis 2:4—3:24?