Jehovah is the traditional English form of the personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible, written with the four consonants YHWH and used about 6,800 times in the Old Testament. Its meaning is tied by Scripture itself to the Hebrew verb hayah, “to be”. When Moses asked at the burning bush what he should tell the Israelites, God answered “I AM THAT I AM”, and in the next breath gave the name that the American Standard Version prints as Jehovah. The name therefore means something close to “He is” or “He will be”: the God who exists in himself, who is present with his people, and who will be what he has promised to be. It is not a title like “Lord” or “God” but a proper name, the one by which God chose to be known, remembered and called upon.
The question Moses asked, and the answer he was given
The clearest window into the meaning of the name is Exodus 3. Moses, standing before the bush that burned and was not consumed, raised a practical objection. The people had been in Egypt for generations; if he came to them in the name of the God of their fathers, they would ask which God, and by what name.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them?
— Exodus 3:13 (ASV)
The reply comes in two stages. First, God speaks in the first person, using a form of the verb “to be”:
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
— Exodus 3:14 (ASV)
Then, in the third person, he gives the name by which Israel is to know him for all time:
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
— Exodus 3:15 (ASV)
The two verses belong together. “I AM” is what God says of himself; “Jehovah” (the four consonants YHWH) is what his people say of him. The form of the verb behind the four letters is generally understood by Hebrew scholars as a third-person form of “to be”, so that the name answers the “I AM” of verse 14 with a “He is”. The name is, in effect, God’s self-description turned into something a worshipper can speak.
What “He is” says about God
Three things are folded into the name, and the rest of the Old Testament unfolds them.
He exists in himself. Everything else that is, is because he made it. The name does not say “the God of the mountain” or “the God of the storm”, as the names of the surrounding nations’ gods often did. It says simply that he is. Malachi draws the consequence for his people:
For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
— Malachi 3:6 (ASV)
He is present. The Hebrew verb can carry the sense of being present and active as much as of bare existence. God’s answer to Moses’ earlier objection, a few verses before, was “I will be with thee”; the name given at the bush carries that promise inside it. Jehovah is the God who is there, which is why one of the compound names, Jehovah-Shammah, means exactly that.
He is faithful. Because he is what he is, he will be what he has said. The name is bound to the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and later to the covenant at Sinai. When God proclaims his own name to Moses on the mountain, the content of the proclamation is character:
And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth;
— Exodus 34:6 (ASV)
To know the name, in the Bible’s way of speaking, is to know that this is what God is like.
Why Exodus 6:3 does not mean the name was new
A reader who goes on to Exodus 6 meets a verse that seems to say the patriarchs never heard the name at all. Read in the ASV, it runs: “and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them.” Yet Genesis uses the name from its second chapter onward, and Abraham himself calls a place Jehovah-Jireh.
The usual and best explanation is that “known” here means known in its full meaning. The patriarchs had the name; they had not yet seen what it meant for God to be the one who is present to redeem a whole people out of slavery. The exodus was the event in which the name was filled with content. The entry on Exodus 3:14 and 6:3 works through this in more detail.
From four Hebrew letters to an English word
The word “Jehovah” itself is an English form with a history. Jewish readers stopped pronouncing the four letters aloud long before the time of Christ, saying Adonai (“my Lord”) instead. When medieval scribes added vowel signs to the Hebrew text, they placed the vowels of Adonai under the consonants YHWH as a reminder to say Adonai. Christian readers in the Middle Ages and the Reformation read the consonants and vowels together, producing Iehouah, which became “Jehovah” in English Bibles from Tyndale (1530) onward. Most scholars now hold that the ancient pronunciation was closer to “Yahweh”.
None of this changes the meaning. Whether one writes YHWH, Yahweh or Jehovah, the name is the same name, with the same sense: He is. The entries on the four forms and on how the word entered English trace the story.
What the name means for the reader
The Psalms treat the name as something to be trusted, remembered and praised, not merely defined. Two lines show the two sides of that.
Thy name, O Jehovah, endureth for ever; Thy memorial name, O Jehovah, throughout all generations.
— Psalm 135:13 (ASV)
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; For thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
— Psalm 9:10 (ASV)
To know the name is to know that God is, that he is here, and that he keeps his word. That is a foundation for prayer, and it is why the name runs through the Psalter as its most frequent word for God.
Where Christians differ
Christians agree on what the name means. They differ, mildly, on which English form to use. Some prefer “Yahweh” as closer to the ancient sound; some keep “Jehovah” because four centuries of English Bibles and hymns have made it familiar; most English Bibles print “the LORD” in small capitals and leave the name unpronounced, following the Jewish custom. This site uses Jehovah as its headword because it is the form English readers meet and search for, while acknowledging that Yahweh is probably the older pronunciation. The entry Is God’s name Jehovah or Yahweh? sets out the case for each.
For reflection
Read Exodus 3 slowly, noticing that the name is given in answer to a question about who God is and whether he will act. Then read Psalm 135, where the same name becomes praise. Pray to the God who is, who is present and who keeps his word, in whatever form of his name your church and your Bible use. If you are not part of a congregation, find one that reads these Scriptures together; a name is meant to be spoken among a people.
References
- Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906).
- Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar (ed. Kautzsch, 1910).
- The Preface to the American Standard Version (1901).
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710).
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559).
Lexicon answers from the Bible and public-domain reference works. It is a study aid and is not affiliated with any organisation.