# H3068 - YHWH **Strong's:** [H3068](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3068/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** yeh-ho-vaw' (Masoretic vowel pointing), original pronunciation lost; scholarly reconstruction: *Yahweh*. **Part of speech:** proper noun referring to deity (the Tetragrammaton, "four letters") **Root:** related to / derived from [H1961 - hayah](/codex/h1961-hayah/) ("to be"); see [Exodus 3.14](/codex/exodus-3-14/) for the etymological self-disclosure. ## Frequency & rendering The most common divine name in the Hebrew Bible, **6,519 occurrences** (per Strong's). Almost universally rendered: - **the LORD** (small caps) in English Christian translations (KJV, NASB95, ESV, NIV), convention preserved from the LXX (κύριος, *kyrios*) and the Vulgate (*Dominus*). - **GOD** (small caps) when juxtaposed with *Adonai* (אֲדֹנָי) to avoid the redundancy "Lord LORD." - **Jehovah**, historic English transliteration, now generally regarded as a hybrid of YHWH consonants with Adonai vowels (the Masoretic *qere perpetuum*). - **Yahweh**, modern scholarly reconstruction. - **HASHEM** ("the Name"), traditional Jewish substitute. - **ADONAI**, Jewish reading-tradition substitute (avoids vocalizing the Tetragrammaton). ## Semantic / theological range 1. **The proper personal name of the God of Israel**, distinct from generic *elohim* ([H0430 - elohim](/codex/h0430-elohim/)) and from the title *Adonai* (lord/master). 2. **Covenant name**, the name *par excellence* under which YHWH binds Himself to Israel ([Exodus 6:2-8](/codex/exodus-6-2-8/); [Deuteronomy 7:9](/codex/deuteronomy-7-9/)). 3. **Self-existence / eternality**, by etymological connection to *hayah*: "He IS / He will be / He is the One who is." 4. **Holy and unutterable**, Jewish post-exilic tradition treats the name as too holy to pronounce; the *qere/ketiv* convention reads *Adonai* aloud. ## Theological force Three claims converge in the name: 1. **Aseity / self-existence.** The connection to *hayah* (see [Exodus 3.14](/codex/exodus-3-14/)) means YHWH names the only being whose existence is intrinsic, not derived. All else is contingent; YHWH alone *is* in the absolute sense. 2. **Covenantal presence.** YHWH is not a generic deity but the One who entered covenant with Abraham ([Genesis 12](/codex/genesis-12/)), revealed His name to Moses ([Exodus 3](/codex/exodus-3/), 6), and bound Himself to Israel. The name carries covenant-faithfulness (*hesed*). 3. **Personal name vs generic title.** In a polytheistic ancient near-eastern context, every god had a proper name. *Elohim* is a generic category ("god" or "gods"); *YHWH* is *which* God specifically. The NT writers identify Jesus with YHWH through programmatic citation: OT YHWH passages are applied to Christ, and Jesus's *egō eimi* sayings ([John 8:24](/codex/john-8-24/), [58](/codex/john-8-58/); 13:19; 18:5-6) self-identify with the LXX rendering of *ehyeh* / YHWH (cf. [H1961 - hayah](/codex/h1961-hayah/)). [Romans 10.13](/codex/romans-10-13/) applies [Joel 2:32](/codex/joel-2-32/) ("everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved") directly to Jesus. ## Notable verses ### Revelation of the name - **[Exodus 3.14](/codex/exodus-3-14/)-15**, *ehyeh asher ehyeh*, then YHWH given as the third-person form - **[Exodus 6:2-3](/codex/exodus-6-2-3/)**, "I am YHWH; I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by My name YHWH I was not known to them" - **[Deuteronomy 6:4](/codex/deuteronomy-6-4/)**, *Shema*: "YHWH our God, YHWH is one" ### Covenant context - **[Genesis 15:7](/codex/genesis-15-7/)**, "I am YHWH who brought you out of Ur" - **[Exodus 20:2](/codex/exodus-20-2/)**, "I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of Egypt" - **[Deuteronomy 7:9](/codex/deuteronomy-7-9/)**, "YHWH your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant" ### Holiness / uniqueness - **[Isaiah 42:8](/codex/isaiah-42-8/)**, "I am YHWH, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another" - **[Isaiah 45:5](/codex/isaiah-45-5/)**, "I am YHWH, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God" - **[Joel 2:32](/codex/joel-2-32/)**, "everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved" (cited of Christ in [Romans 10.13](/codex/romans-10-13/)) ### Identifications applied to Christ in NT - **[Zechariah 12:10](/codex/zechariah-12-10/)**, "they will look on Me whom they have pierced" (YHWH speaking; applied to Christ in [John 19:37](/codex/john-19-37/)) - **[Isaiah 6:1-10](/codex/isaiah-6-1-10/)**, Isaiah's vision of YHWH (applied to Christ in [John 12:41](/codex/john-12-41/)) - **[Isaiah 40:3](/codex/isaiah-40-3/)**, "prepare the way of YHWH" (applied to John the Baptist preparing for Christ in [Matthew 3:3](/codex/matthew-3-3/), [Mark 1:3](/codex/mark-1-3/)) - **[Psalm 102:25](/codex/psalms-102-25/)**, applied to the Son in [Hebrews 1:10-12](/codex/hebrews-1-10-12/) ## Patristic / scholarly note The pre-Christian LXX rendering of YHWH as *kyrios* ([G2962 - kyrios](/codex/g2962-kyrios/)) is the linguistic foundation for the NT confession "Jesus is *kyrios*" ([Romans 10:9](/codex/romans-10-9/); [Philippians 2:11](/codex/philippians-2-11/)), confessing Jesus as YHWH. Tertullian (*Against Praxeas* 13-17, c. AD 213) and Athanasius both rely on this LXX equivalence to ground the deity of Christ from the OT. Modern scholarship (Larry Hurtado, *Lord Jesus Christ*, 2003; Richard Bauckham, *Jesus and the God of Israel*, 2008) develops the same point: NT Christology is grounded in the *kyrios*-YHWH identification. The original pronunciation has been lost. The Masoretic Tetragrammaton is pointed with the vowels of *Adonai* (*shewa* + *cholam* + *qamatz*) as a reading instruction, not as the actual pronunciation. The hybrid "Jehovah" (J for Y, V for W) is a Latin-mediated artifact. *Yahweh* is the standard scholarly reconstruction based on Greek transliterations in early Christian sources (e.g., Clement of Alexandria's Ἰαουέ). ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - [H1961 - hayah](/codex/h1961-hayah/), "to be," the verbal root - [H0430 - elohim](/codex/h0430-elohim/), generic "God" / category-noun pair with the proper name - [G2962 - kyrios](/codex/g2962-kyrios/), LXX/NT rendering "Lord" - [G1510 - eimi](/codex/g1510-eimi/), Greek "to be," John's *egō eimi* - [Exodus 3.14](/codex/exodus-3-14/), the divine self-disclosure