Is it wrong to say Jehovah?

It is not wrong to say Jehovah. The commandment about God’s name forbids taking it in vain, that is, using it emptily, falsely or for one’s own ends; it does not forbid speaking it. The Psalms repeatedly call God’s people to praise, call upon and make known his name, and they cannot do that in silence. The Jewish custom of not pronouncing the name grew out of deep reverence and a desire never to break that commandment, and Christians should understand it respectfully; but it is a custom, not a command, and the church has never been bound by it. Two cautions are worth keeping. The form “Jehovah” is a hybrid of Hebrew consonants and borrowed vowels, so it should be said with humility rather than insistence. And the name is holy, so it should be said as the Psalms say it: in prayer, in praise and in truth.

What the third commandment forbids

The commandment is short, and its wording matters:

Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

— Exodus 20:7 (ASV)

The Hebrew phrase behind “take in vain” means to lift up or carry the name for what is empty, worthless or false. It covers false oaths sworn by the name, magical or manipulative use of it, careless swearing, and any speech that invokes God for a lie. What it does not cover is the reverent use of the name in worship, which the rest of the Old Testament commands. The same book that gives the commandment records Moses proclaiming the name, the priests blessing Israel with it, and the psalmists singing it.

A separate law in Leviticus deals with blasphemy of the name, the deliberate cursing of God, and imposes the death penalty:

And he that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the sojourner, as the home-born, when he blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, shall be put to death.

— Leviticus 24:16 (ASV)

This verse lies behind the later Jewish caution. If cursing the name brought death, the safest course seemed to be never to pronounce it at all. The reasoning is understandable and deserves respect. But the verse condemns blasphemy, not speech.

What the Psalms command

Set against the fear of saying the name is the plain call of the Psalter to use it. The language is not merely of honouring the name in the abstract but of calling upon it, praising it and making it known.

Oh give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; Make known among the peoples his doings.

— Psalm 105:1 (ASV)

Let them praise the name of Jehovah; For his name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and the heavens.

— Psalm 148:13 (ASV)

The psalmist in distress does not avoid the name; he uses it as the very content of his prayer:

Then called I upon the name of Jehovah: O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

— Psalm 116:4 (ASV)

The New Testament carries the same language forward. Paul, quoting Joel’s promise that everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved, applies it to calling on Jesus as Lord:

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

— Romans 10:13 (BSB)

To call on the name is at the heart of biblical faith. Whether one says the name in its Hebrew reconstruction, in its traditional English form, or as “the Lord”, the calling is what is commanded.

The Jewish custom, understood respectfully

By the late Second Temple period Jewish readers substituted Adonai, “my Lord”, for the name when reading Scripture aloud, and the name was pronounced only by the high priest in the Temple on the Day of Atonement. After the Temple’s destruction even that use ceased, and to this day observant Jews say HaShem, “the Name”, in ordinary speech and Adonai in prayer. The entry on the Tetragrammaton in Jewish tradition tells the story more fully.

Christians should neither mock this custom nor adopt it as law. It is a fence built around a commandment by people who took the commandment seriously, and the Christian church inherited its fruit: the Greek Bible’s Kyrios and the English Bible’s LORD both come from it. But Jesus taught his disciples to pray “hallowed be thy name”, and hallowing a name is an act of speech. The apostles preached the name of the Lord openly. The church has always sung the name in its psalms, and since the sixteenth century in English it has sung “Jehovah” in some of its best-loved hymns (see The name Jehovah in the hymns of the church).

Two cautions about the word itself

The first caution is about accuracy. “Jehovah” is the four consonants read with the vowels of Adonai, a reading that arose among Christian scholars in the later Middle Ages. Most Hebrew scholars hold that “Yahweh” is closer to the ancient sound. A Christian who says “Jehovah” should therefore not insist that it is the only correct form, nor treat those who say “Yahweh” or “the LORD” as less faithful. The entry How to pronounce Jehovah, and why no one is certain explains the evidence.

The second caution is about manner. The name is not a password, a formula or a badge. The Old Testament’s warning is against using the name emptily, and it is possible to say the name often and emptily. The measure of reverence is not how often the name is spoken but whether it is spoken in truth, with the fear and love that the Psalms show.

Where Christians differ

Some Christians, following the LORD convention of their Bibles, prefer not to pronounce the name at all, out of respect for the Jewish tradition and the practice of the apostles’ Greek Bible. Others say “Yahweh” in teaching and worship. Others, especially in traditions shaped by the older hymns and the King James Version, say “Jehovah”. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold that using the name is a mark of true worship; mainstream Christians hold that the name may be used freely but that salvation turns on calling upon the Lord Jesus, not on the form of the word. This site regards all three Christian practices as legitimate, leans towards using the name, and asks only that it be used truthfully.

For reflection

Read Psalm 105 and Psalm 148 aloud, and let the repeated name be part of your praise rather than a problem to be solved. If you have been afraid to say the name, notice that the psalmists were not. If you have said it easily, ask whether you have said it in truth. Then pray as Jesus taught, that the name may be hallowed, and find a congregation in which the name of the Lord is honoured in word and in life.

References

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906).
The Mishnah, tractate Yoma.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647).
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710).
The Preface to the American Standard Version (1901).