God gave Moses a name at the burning bush. Most English Bibles hide it behind four capital letters. Here is what the name is, why it went quiet, and where it finally got a face.
The answer to what is God's name is YHWH, four Hebrew letters God gave Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. It comes from the verb to be, it is tied to I AM WHO I AM, and it appears over 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible.
Most English Bibles print it as LORD in capital letters. Jehovah is a later blend of letters, and Yahweh is the best scholarly reconstruction of how it sounded. The fullest answer is Jesus, who said He had made the Father's name known.
God, Lord, Almighty and Father are titles. YHWH is the personal name, the one God attached to His promise to rescue a people in slavery.
Moses is barefoot in front of a bush that burns and does not burn up. God has told him to go back to Egypt and bring Israel out. Moses asks the obvious question: if the people ask who sent me, what do I tell them?
“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’”
Exodus 3:14 to 15, ESVNotice the order. First God says I AM WHO I AM. Then He shortens it to I AM. Then He gives the name itself, which most translations render as the LORD. In Hebrew, I AM is ehyeh, and the name is YHWH. Both grow from the same verb, to be. God speaks of Himself in the first person, I am. We speak of Him in the third person, He is.
I AM WHO I AM. Translations often footnote another reading, I will be what I will be. Both fit the story. God is who He is, and He is about to prove it by what He does in Egypt.
Four consonants, yod, he, vav, he, often called the Tetragrammaton, Greek for four letters. It is built on the verb to be and carries the sense He is, or possibly He causes to be.
The short form. You say it every time you say hallelujah, praise Yah, and it sits inside names like Elijah, my God is Yah.
This was never a philosophy lecture. Israel was enslaved, and their real question was whether any God was paying attention. The answer was a name that says I am, and I am here. Two verses earlier God had already told Moses, I will be with you (Exodus 3:12). We stay with that verse longer in our I Am Who I Am study.
God did not hand Moses a label. He gave him a promise with a name on it: I am, and I will be with you.
Open most English Bibles to Exodus 3:15 and you will see LORD in capital letters. Whenever LORD is printed that way, the Hebrew underneath is YHWH. Lord in ordinary letters usually translates adonai, lord or master.
The habit is far older than printing. Out of reverence, and out of care for the third commandment, Jewish readers stopped saying the name aloud and read Adonai, my Lord, in its place. Many still say HaShem, the Name. The Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia, hosted by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, says that “as early as the time of Jesus, it was the custom to pronounce Adhonai where YHWH occurred”.
God reveals YHWH at the bush and ties it to the rescue from Egypt.
The written name stays in the scroll, and readers say Lord where the four letters stand.
Greek copies of the Old Testament generally render the name Kyrios, Lord, though some early copies kept the Hebrew letters. So the New Testament says Lord when it quotes a verse that had YHWH.
Hebrew was first written without vowels. When the Masoretic scribes added vowel marks, they placed the vowels of Adonai with YHWH as a reminder: do not say this, say Lord.
Christian scholars read the consonants of one word with the vowels of another and got Jehovah. Schaff-Herzog traces it to Wessel, who died in 1489, and Petrus Galatinus in the early 1500s. The King James Version later printed JEHOVAH in a few verses, including Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18.
Early writers who spelled the name in Greek letters recorded forms close to Yahweh, and Theodoret, a fifth century bishop, said the Samaritans pronounced it Yabe. That is why most scholars say Yahweh today.
So is Jehovah wrong? It is a real word with a real history, and hymns like Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah have carried it for centuries, but no Israelite ever said it. Yahweh is closer, held loosely, since nobody alive has heard Moses say it. The fuller story of the letters is in what Yahweh means, and the substitute word gets its own study in Adonai meaning.
When an English Bible prints LORD in capital letters, what Hebrew word is underneath?
Capital LORD marks YHWH. Ordinary Lord usually translates adonai, and God usually translates elohim. The capitals are the translators telling you the name is right there on the page.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
YHWH is the name. Scripture also uses titles, and knowing which is which clears up a lot.
The ordinary Hebrew word for God. It is plural in form but takes singular verbs when it means Israel's God, and the same word can mean the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12). See Elohim meaning.
Usually translated God Almighty. The exact meaning of Shaddai is honestly uncertain, and scholars have proposed several roots. Exodus 6:3 says the patriarchs knew God by this name.
The God who sees me. It is Hagar, an Egyptian servant who had fled harsh treatment, who gives God this name.
The LORD of hosts, Lord over the stars, the heavenly court and Israel's ranks. See our study of the Lord of hosts.
Lord, master. A title of honor, and the word Israel read aloud in place of the name. When Abram prays Adonai followed by YHWH, the ESV prints O Lord GOD.
Then there are the compound names people love to pray: Jehovah Jireh, Rapha, Nissi, Shalom. They are real and beautiful. But here is a detail sermons often skip, ours included. Several are names people gave to places and altars after God acted.
Abraham named the mountain The LORD will provide (Genesis 22:14). Moses named an altar The LORD is my banner (Exodus 17:15). Gideon named an altar The LORD is peace (Judges 6:24). Exodus 15:26 is the one where God speaks it over Himself: I am the LORD, your healer.
That makes them testimony, not less true. Our studies of Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi and shalom take them one at a time.
Elohim says what He is. El Shaddai and the compound names say what He has done. YHWH says who He is, and it is the only one He calls my name forever.
Some believers have been told that unless they say Yahweh, or Yahuah, or some other exact form, they are praying to the wrong God. Others have been told that saying the name at all is disrespectful. Both usually come from people who want to honor God.
The strongest form of the sacred name view: God said this is my name forever, and swapping it for a title looks like forgetting it. That concern is fair, and it is why we teach the name instead of hiding it.
God only answers to one pronunciation. LORD and Jesus are substitutes, maybe even pagan names. If you got the vowels wrong, your prayers did not count.
The apostles wrote in Greek and called God Kyrios and His Son Iesous on every page. At Pentecost the Spirit made the good news heard in many languages at once (Acts 2:6 to 11).
Sound of Heaven holds that no pronunciation of God's name is required for salvation, prayer or power. Yahweh, the LORD, Adonai, Jehovah, Dios and Jesus in any language reach the same God, because He knows who you mean. It is the same position we take in what the name Jesus means.
The teaching that one pronunciation is required is wrong, and it tends to land hardest on new believers and on people already anxious that they have missed something. If that was you, hear it plainly. Your prayers counted. God was never waiting for you to get the vowels right.
It cuts the other way too. Saying Yahweh in worship is not irreverent. With Jewish friends who do not say it, courtesy costs nothing.
Taking the name in vain was never about pronunciation. It was about carrying His name while living against His character. See what it means to take the Lord's name in vain.
God tells Moses I AM, and then spends centuries showing Israel what that means. Scripture was written by real people in real cultures, and not everything done in God's name showed His character. Jesus is where the picture comes into focus.
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
John 17:6, ESVThe night before the cross, Jesus sums up His ministry this way. He did not teach a pronunciation. He showed them the Father. In Scripture a name means the person and character behind it. Jesus is the name made visible.
“Before Abraham was, I am.” The crowd picked up stones, because they heard the bush in it. See our I Am statements study.
Paul quotes Joel, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and applies it to Jesus. In Joel 2:32 the Lord is YHWH.
Even His own name carries the divine name. Yeshua means Yahweh saves, and the angel explains why: He will save His people from their sins.
Jesus sends His followers to baptize in the name, singular, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God, three distinct Persons, each fully God.
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9 to 11Paul is borrowing from Isaiah 45:23, where YHWH says every knee will bow to Him. Paul says those knees bow at the name of Jesus. The name Moses heard at the bush now has a face, and He reigns now.
So what is God's name? YHWH, I AM, the one who was with Moses and will be with you. The clearest way to know that name is to look at Jesus. When you pray, you are not guessing at a password.
If you want someone to pray with you, send us a request, and if you are on Long Island, come see us in Deer Park. You can also read what we believe.
For related reading, see the names of Jesus, Jesus is Lord, hallowed be thy name and the Trinity in the Bible.
God's name is YHWH, I AM, given at the bush, read aloud as Lord for centuries, and made fully known in Jesus, whose name is above every name.
Tell us what you are carrying, and someone from Sound of Heaven will pray with you by name.
God's personal name in the Bible is YHWH, four Hebrew letters revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14 to 15. It is tied to the phrase I AM WHO I AM and comes from the Hebrew verb to be. It appears over 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible, and most English translations print it as LORD in capital letters. Titles like God, Almighty and Most High describe Him, but YHWH is the one He calls His name forever.
Yahweh is the closer of the two. Hebrew was first written without vowels, and when scribes later added vowel marks they placed the vowels of Adonai with YHWH to remind readers to say Lord. Christian scholars around the 1500s read those letters together and produced Jehovah, which spread through English Bibles and hymns. Early Greek spellings point to something like Yahweh, which is why most scholars use it. Even so, nobody can be certain exactly how Moses said it.
They follow an old Jewish practice. Out of reverence, readers said Adonai, my Lord, wherever YHWH appeared, a habit already in place by the time of Jesus. Greek translations used Kyrios, Lord, and English Bibles kept the pattern by printing LORD in capital letters wherever the Hebrew has YHWH. Ordinary Lord usually translates adonai. So the capitals are a signal that the personal name of God is right there in the text.
No. Some sacred name groups teach that only one pronunciation reaches God, but the New Testament answers that. The apostles wrote in Greek and called God Kyrios and His Son Iesous, and at Pentecost the Spirit made the good news heard in many languages at once. God hears prayer in any language. Calling on His name means trusting who He is, not getting the vowels right. Your prayers have never depended on your accent.
It is God's answer when Moses asks for His name in Exodus 3:14. In Hebrew it is ehyeh asher ehyeh, from the verb to be, and it can also be read I will be what I will be. God is saying He exists on His own terms and will show who He is by what He does. Two verses earlier He had promised Moses, I will be with you. Jesus echoed the phrase in John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am.