What does יְהֹוָה (YHWH) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew name יהוה identifies the God of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible, like many English translations, represents the name as “LORD” in capital letters.
(The) self- Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah , Jewish national name of God
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The Hebrew name יהוה identifies the God of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible, like many English translations, represents the name as “LORD” in capital letters.
Reader summary
Full entry for יְהֹוָה (H3068) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew name יהוה identifies the God of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible, like many English translations, represents the name as “LORD” in capital letters.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6,522 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the LORD (2,870), of the LORD (1,384), to the LORD (451), O LORD (343), And the LORD (181).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (712), Psalms (687), Deuteronomy (548), Isaiah (425).
The Hebrew name יהוה identifies the God of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible, like many English translations, represents the name as “Lord” in capital letters. That convention signals a personal name in the Hebrew text; it should not be confused with every ordinary occurrence of the title “lord.” The Masoretic pointing reflects a received reading practice and does not by itself settle the name’s ancient pronunciation. Teachers should therefore acknowledge that pronunciation remains debated instead of presenting one reconstruction as certain.
Exodus 3:15 places the name within God’s commission of Moses: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sends him and declares how He is to be remembered. The nearby statement “I AM WHO I AM” in Exodus 3:14 is important for reading the scene, but the relationship between the forms should be handled with lexical care. A proposed derivation cannot carry a complete doctrine of God by itself. Exodus 6:6 and 34:6 show the name in promises and self-declaration: the Lord redeems Israel and makes His compassion, grace, patience, loving devotion, and faithfulness known.
Genesis 2:4 joins “the Lord God” to the making of heaven and earth, while Deuteronomy 6:4 confesses that the Lord is Israel’s God and is one. Joel 2:32 promises deliverance to those who call on the name of the Lord. These passages support worship, trust, obedience, and covenant remembrance, but the name must not be reduced to a slogan that guarantees a preferred outcome.
The New Testament often uses the Greek title kyrios when quoting Old Testament passages that contain יהוה. Romans 10 draws Joel 2:32 into a Christ-centered confession, which is a weighty canonical connection. Even so, teachers should establish such links passage by passage. The divine name does not license speculative pronunciation claims, secret-name spirituality, or the assertion that every New Testament use of “Lord” directly represents H3068.
H3068 is the personal name by which Israel’s God is identified in creation, covenant remembrance, rescue, self-declared character, exclusive allegiance, and promised deliverance. Each passage supplies the theological claim rather than pronunciation or etymology carrying it alone.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made them.
The combined expression “the Lord God” identifies Israel’s named God as the maker within this creation account.
God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘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 this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
God gives Moses the name within a commission and ties remembrance to the God of Israel’s fathers.
Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
The declaration of the name introduces concrete promises of deliverance, redemption, and judgment against Egyptian oppression.
Then the Lord passed in front of Moses and called out: “The Lord, the Lord God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
The Lord proclaims His own name together with character language that governs Israel’s knowledge of Him.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Israel’s central confession joins the divine name to exclusive allegiance and the oneness of Israel’s God.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has promised, among the remnant called by the Lord.
Joel locates rescue in calling on the Lord amid the announced day, promise, and preserved remnant.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. God's self-existence and eternity marked by the covenantal name revealing His unchanging, personal relationship with Israel
God's self-existence and eternity marked by the covenantal name revealing His unchanging, personal relationship with Israel
The proper name of the God of Israel. From הָיָה (H1961), to be; the self-existent and eternal one. BDB: the personal proper name of the God of Israel — the name revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:14–15), where God declares I am that I am, identifying himself as the absolutely self-existent, living God. The name occurs 6,828 times in the OT and is consistently rendered LORD (Qere: Adonai) in public reading and in most translations. Usage: Jehovah, LORD. The divine name emphasizing covenant faithfulness, self-existence, and personal nearness to Israel. Distinguished from Elohim (H430) by its relational and covenantal weight.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 6,521 lexical occurrence verses.
יְהֹוָה is built from this root:
The proverb grounds moral order in God's character and authority.Proverbs 10:29
The proverb attributes moral outcomes to God's sovereign governance.Proverbs 10:3
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The force of H3068 is not unlocked by recovering a syllable sequence or attaching unlimited claims to an etymology. Scripture makes the name known through the identity and acts of the One who bears it. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who sends Moses, brings Israel out of bondage, judges oppressors, and declares Himself compassionate, gracious, patient, faithful, and abounding in loving devotion.
Deuteronomy summons Israel to undivided allegiance, and Joel directs threatened people to call on the Lord for deliverance. Christian teaching may also follow the New Testament when it applies an Old Testament Lord text to Jesus, as Romans 10 does with Joel 2:32. That conclusion arises from the apostolic argument, not from treating every occurrence of “Lord” as mechanically identical.
Reverence for the name therefore includes careful reading, truthful limits, covenant trust, and obedience to the God whose character the text reveals.
Exod.3.15
H3068 functions as a proper divine name, while the BSB conventionally renders it “Lord.” The Masoretic vowels are bound to a reading tradition, so spelling, pointing, proposed derivation, and reconstructed pronunciation must not be collapsed into one claim.
New Testament writers commonly quote Greek Old Testament wording that uses kyrios where the Hebrew passage has H3068. Romans 10:9-13 applies Joel’s call upon the Lord to a confession centered on Jesus, providing a direct canonical argument while still requiring other “Lord” texts to be evaluated in their own contexts.