Jehovah: The special and significant name (not merely an appellative title such
as Lord [adonai]) by which God revealed himself to the ancient
Hebrews
(Exodus 6:2,3) This name, the Tetragrammaton of the Greeks, was
held by the later Jews to be so sacred that it was never pronounced
except by the high priest on the great Day of Atonement, when he
entered into the most holy place. Whenever this name occurred in the
sacred books they pronounced it, as they still do, "Adonai" (i.e.,
Lord), thus using another word in its stead. The Massorets gave to it
the vowel-points appropriate to this word. This Jewish practice was
founded on a false interpretation of
(Leviticus 24:16) The meaning of the
word appears from
(Exodus 3:14) to be "the unchanging, eternal,
self-existent God," the "I am that I am," a convenant-keeping God.
(Comp.)
(Malachi 3:6; Hosea 12:5; Revelation 1:4,8) The Hebrew name "Jehovah" is
generally translated in the Authorized Version (and the Revised
Version has not departed from this rule) by the word LORD printed in
small capitals, to distinguish it from the rendering of the Hebrew
Adonai and the Greek Kurios, which are also rendered Lord, but
printed in the usual type. The Hebrew word is translated "Jehovah"
only in
(Exodus 6:3; Psalms 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4) and in the compound names
mentioned below. It is worthy of notice that this name is never used
in the LXX., the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Apocrypha, or in the New
Testament. It is found, however, on the "Moabite stone" (q.v.), and
consequently it must have been in the days of Mesba so commonly
pronounced by the Hebrews as to be familiar to their heathen
neighbours.
