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By Tyson Thorne

July 19, 2018
 

NoG YHWH Large

We mentioned in this series already that even though YHWH is written in the Bible many times it was only ever spoken by the priests in the Temple. When outside the Temple the priests used the name Adonai. This name for God means “Master” or “Owner” and represents God’s right to rule as he is the creator and owner of every person. This name for God occurs nearly 300 times in the Old Testament. Before the people then, the Priest would read a passage from the Law and replace this personal name YHWH with Adonai.

To make matters more confusing, early translators mucked up the Tetragrammaton. As we've mentioned previously, they tried filling in the missing vowels using the vowel pointing’s from other Hebrew names for God and came up with Jehovah. Therefore, in early English translations of the Old Testament, the four Hebrew letters yod, he, waw and he were translated (incorrectly) as Jehovah. As a result we are largely familiar with these names beginning with Jehovah when in fact they should begin with the name YHWH, such as Jehovah-Jireh.

So we have the Tetragrammaton YHWH written but never pronounced, leading to the substitution of YHWH with Jehovah. In this series we will forgo the use of Jehovah and YHWH and instead use Adonai followed by the additional compound as per Jewish tradition. Since Jehovah is really YHWH, and YHWH is substituted with Adonai when read aloud, it only makes sense to use Adonai.

Many Christians are probably familiar with the name Jehobah-Jirah. I know I first heard it from an 80's metal band named Deliverance. I'm betting most of my readers heard it in church first. At least I hope so. However you heard it, this is compound name is almost entirely wrong. Since there is no letter J in Hebrew, it would be transliterated properly as YHWH-Yireh (pronounced yah-whey-yer-ay), so in our study it becomes Adonai-Yireh.

However you have heard it pronounced, this is the name Abraham calls the place where God provided a ram as a replacement offering for his son Isaac in Genesis 22.14. The name means “The Lord provides” or, more literally, "the Lord will see to it". The theological implication is quite beautiful. God does not abandon his people, no matter how hard our struggle might be. God loves and provides for his children all they need. Notice it does not mean all that his children “want”, though God often provides for our wants as well. Jesus speaks to this attribute of God in Matthew 6:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? 6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? 6:27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?