Jehovah, the distinctive name for God in the Old Testament, in the Authorised Version is sometimes merely transliterated from the Massoretic Hebrew text, as above, but more frequently it is translated as 'LORD' (with capital letters). The word consists of the consonants JHVH or JHWH, with the vowels of a quite separate word, AdOnAI ('Lord'), an indistinct E being substituted for the short A. What its original vowels were is only matter of inference, for owing to a peculiar interpretation of such texts as Ex. xx. 7, Lev. xxiv. 11, the name came to be regarded as ineffable; the scribes in reading substituted 'Lord,' and the LXX. translation has Kyrios. The evidence of the Greek Church fathers, who give the forms Jabe and Jaô as traditional, as well as the shortened Hebrew forms of the word, Jah (Ps. lxviii. 4, &c.) and Jahu (in proper names, such as Jirmejahu or Jeremiah), indicate that most probably it was originally spoken Jahweh (pron. Yahweh). Etymologically, it is a third person singular, imperfect, probably of the verb hawah (or hajah), signifying 'to be,' as regards the 'voice,' scholars are not agreed, some supposing it to be causative, and translating 'he will cause to be' or 'he will cause to come to pass,' while others with more probability view it as a simple indicative. The text usually relied on for the explanation of the name is Ex. iii. 14, with its kindred passages. The older interpreters explain the verb (here used in the first person) in a highly metaphysical and abstract sense; the 'I am' is He who really is, the absolutely existent, the eternal. The tendency of modern exegesis is to read a more concrete and historical meaning into the expression, translating it 'I will be what I will be,' and taking it as referring to the divine sovereignty, autonomy, self-determination, freedom, but especially to the freedom of the divine grace. This view is confirmed by such a passage as Hos. i. 9: 'Ye are not my people and I am not I WILL BE for you.' Jehovah is 'He who will be'—all in all to his people; but 'eye hath not seen,' 'ear hath not heard,' 'it hath not entered into the heart of man,' nor can language express the ways in which his divine grace is to show itself to them; it must be left to unfold itself in the as yet undreamed-of actualities of their lives. The language of Ex. vi. 3 (which belongs to the priestly or latest portion of the Pentateuch) has been taken as proving that the name Jehovah was of relatively late origin among the Hebrews; but, if this interpretation is correct, the representation is hardly reconcilable with what is said in Gen. iv. 26 (an older portion of the Pentateuch), or with the very early existence of proper names containing this divine name (Ex. vi. 20). The word is doubtless very old, and in all probability its earliest connotation, if known, would be found to represent a very primitive phase of religious thought (perhaps it may be 'he who causes to fall' [the rain or lightning]; see Hebrew of Job, xxxvii. 6). At one time or another in the history of Israel and of the Christian church, it has conveyed with various fullness and depth all shades of the metaphysical and religious meanings hinted at above. Certain portions of the Pentateuch, especially of
Genesis, are distinguished by the almost unvarying use of this name of God, as also are certain sections of the Psalter—a peculiarity which has an important bearing on questions of Old Testament criticism (see BIBLE). For references to the recent literature of the subject, see the lexicon of Gesenius (ed. 1890), or Driver's essay in Studia Biblica (1885).