Jehovah, << jih HOH vuh, >> is a form of Yahweh, the sacred Hebrew personal name for God. In the ancient Hebrew language, the name Yahweh is made up of four consonants. The consonants are written in English as YHWH. Scholars sometimes call YHWH the Tetragrammaton, meaning four letters. YHWH often is represented in translations of the Bible as “LORD.” According to one tradition, God first revealed the name YHWH to the Israelite leader Moses (Exodus 3: 14). Another tradition holds that people began using the name YHWH much earlier (Genesis 4: 26).
Jews consider the name Yahweh or YHWH too holy to say aloud. By the 200’s B.C., they were using the word Adonai as a respectful substitute when reading from their scriptures. Adonai describes someone who is superior. Adonai often is represented in translations of the Bible as “Lord.” Jewish scribes combined the vowels of Adonai with the consonants of YHWH. The letter written as Y sometimes is written as J. This combination resulted in the Latin spelling Jehovah, which carried over into English.
