In the Book of Genesis, Jehovah-jireh was the location of the binding of Isaac, where Yahweh told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham named the place after God provided a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac. This name, hence, carries the meaning, "The Lord will provide".
In the Masoretic Text, the name is יְהוָה יִרְאֶה (yhwh yirʾeh). The first word of the phrase is the Tetragrammaton (יהוה), YHWH, the most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible, which is usually given the pronunciation Yahweh in scholarly works. [1] Jehovah is a Christian anglicized vocalization of this name using the vowels of the Tetragrammaton according to the Masoretic text. Following a Jewish tradition of not pronouncing God's proper name, YHWH is generally translated in English bibles as "the LORD" or "GOD" in capital letters, just as in Jewish worship it is traditionally not pronounced but the word Adonai or Elohim ("God") is used instead.
The early Septuagint translation into Greek gives the meaning as "The Lord hath seen." [2] One Latin version of the Christian Bible rendered the name in Latin as Dominus videt ("The LORD sees"). [3] The King James Version follows this meaning, as quoted above.
Jewish translations of the verse into English include,
And Abraham called the name of that place Adonai-jireh; as it is said to this day: 'In the mount where the LORD is seen.' – Genesis 22:14 (Jewish Publication Society translation of 1917)
However, some modern translations, including the NIV, render it "the LORD will provide", [4] amplifying the literal meaning along the lines of "the LORD will see to it", and referring to Abraham's earlier words in 22:8, "God himself will provide the lamb". [5] [6]
Some Jewish commentators see the name as alluding to the future importance of the place as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Targumim do not regard "Jehovah-jireh" as a proper name. [7]
Considering the passive construction of Abraham's words in verse 14, "In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen", Calvin comments that it teaches "that God not only looks upon those who are his, but also makes his help manifest to them..." [8] John Wesley and Matthew Henry go further, suggesting that "perhaps it may refer to God manifest in the flesh." [6] [9]
"Jehovah Jireh embodies the belief in God's unwavering provision, echoing the story of Abraham and Isaac. [10] It's a testament to the faith that God will provide for our needs, reassuring believers of His constant care and provision."
John Newton translates "Jehovah-jireh" as "The Lord will provide" in his hymn, "When Troubles Assail." [11] It is also the title of a William Cowper hymn. [12]
Jehovah Jireh is the title of an 1867 book by William Plumer.
"Jehovah Jireh" is the title of several modern songs, including one by Don Moen included on his 1986 debut album Give Thanks; various others have covered it, including thrash metal band Deliverance on their 1989 self-titled debut album.
Chandra Currelley performed another song with the same title in the 2006 play What's Done in the Dark .
R&B singer Frank Ocean also uses the name "Jehovah Jireh" in his debut album/mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra in the song is titled 'We All Try". [13]
Organizations bearing the name include Jehovah Jireh Children's Homes in Kenya, founded by Manasses Kuria, and churches such as Jehovah Jireh Samoan Assembly of God in Victorville, California, United States.[ citation needed ][ relevant? ]
Maverick City Music and Elevation Worship released a song called "Jireh" in 2021. [14]
Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: יהוה, אֲדֹנָי, אֵל, אֱלֹהִים, שַׁדַּי, and צְבָאוֹת ; some also include I Am that I Am. Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. Some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted the chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt-Vav instead of Yōd-Hē for the number fifteen or Ṭēt-Zayin instead of Yōd-Vav for the Hebrew number sixteen.
Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.
There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word god is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or specifically to the Supreme Being, as denoted in English by the capitalized and uncapitalized terms God and god. Ancient cognate equivalents for the biblical Hebrew Elohim, one of the most common names of God in the Bible, include proto-Semitic El, biblical Aramaic Elah, and Arabic ilah. The personal or proper name for God in many of these languages may either be distinguished from such attributes, or homonymic. For example, in Judaism the tetragrammaton is sometimes related to the ancient Hebrew ehyeh. It is connected to the passage in Exodus 3:14 in which God gives his name as אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, where the verb, translated most basically as "I am that I am" or "I shall be what I shall be", "I shall be what I am" In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH, the personal name of God, is revealed directly to Moses. Correlation between various theories and interpretation of the name of "the one God", used to signify a monotheistic or ultimate Supreme Being from which all other divine attributes derive, has been a subject of ecumenical discourse between Eastern and Western scholars for over two centuries. In Christian theology the word is considered a personal and a proper name of God. On the other hand, the names of God in a different tradition are sometimes referred to by symbols. The question whether divine names used by different religions are equivalent has been raised and analyzed.
Hallelujah is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Tanakh, twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christian Book of Revelation.
Jehovah-shammah is a Christian transliteration of the Hebrew יְהוָה שָׁמָּה meaning "Jehovah is there", the name given to the city in Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel 48:35. These are the final words of the Book of Ezekiel. The first word of the phrase is the tetragrammaton יהוה. Jehovah is a Christian anglicized vocalization of this name.
The Angel of the Lord is an entity appearing repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible on behalf of the God of Israel.
Qere and Ketiv refers to a system for marking differences between what is written in the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible, as preserved by scribal tradition, and what is read. In such situations, the qere is the technical orthographic device used to indicate the pronunciation of the words in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew language scriptures (Tanakh), while the ketiv indicates their written form, as inherited from tradition.
Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָהYəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God's name in Christianity.
In contrast to the variety of absolute or personal names of God in the Old Testament, the New Testament uses only two, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. From the 20th century onwards, "a number of scholars find various evidence for the name [YHWH or related form] in the New Testament.
According to Exodus 17:13–16 in the Bible, Jehovah-nissi is the name given by Moses to the altar which he built to celebrate the defeat of the Amalekites at Rephidim.
In Judaism, God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that Yahweh—that is, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the national god of the Israelites—delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. Jews traditionally believe in a monotheistic conception of God, characterized by both transcendence and immanence.
The Tetragrammaton is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה, the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left, are yodh, he, waw, and he. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass". While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally among Biblical and Semitic linguistics scholars, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage.
Gender in Bible translation concerns various issues, such as the gender of God and generic antecedents in reference to people. Bruce Metzger states that the English language is so biased towards the male gender that it restricts and obscures the meaning of the original language, which was more gender-inclusive than a literal translation would convey. Wayne Grudem disagrees, believing that a translation should try to match the words of the original language rather than introduce the translator's opinion as to whether the original words meant to include both sexes or not, and that trying to be gender-neutral results in vague and contorted writing style. Michael Marlowe argues from a third standpoint, that the cultures in the Bible were patriarchal. The topic has theological and political undercurrents. Paul Mankowski says that inclusive-language translators are bowing to feminist political taboos rather than trying to translate accurately, while Marmy Clason says that their opponents are motivated by hostility to feminism rather than fidelity to the original meaning.
The Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition (SSBE) is a Sacred Name Bible which uses the names Yahweh and Yahshua in both the Old and New Testaments. It was produced by Jacob O. Meyer, based on the American Standard Version of 1901 and it contains over 977 pages. The Assemblies of Yahweh printed 5,500 copies of the first edition in 1981. It is also used by some members of the Sacred Name Movement.
Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain" is the second or third of God's Ten Commandments to man in Judaism and Christianity.
The Bible usually uses the name of God in the singular, generally using the terms in a very general sense rather than referring to any special designation of God. However, general references to the name of God may branch to other special forms which express His multifaceted attributes. The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible reveals YHWH as the personal name of God, along with certain titles including El Elyon and El Shaddai. Jah or Yah is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh, and often sees usage by Christians in the interjection "Hallelujah", meaning "Praise Yah", which is used to give God glory. In the New Testament the terms Theos, Kyrios and Patēr are additionally used to reference God.
"I am the LORD thy God" is the opening phrase of the Ten Commandments, which are widely understood as moral imperatives by ancient legal historians and Jewish and Christian biblical scholars.
Kyrios or kurios is a Greek word that is usually translated as "lord" or "master". It is used in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible about 7000 times, in particular translating the name YHWH, and it appears in the Koine Greek New Testament about 740 times, usually referring to Jesus.
Judges 6 is the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judge Gideon, belonging to a section comprising Judges 6 to 9 and a bigger section of Judges 6:1 to 16:31.