God’s Two Chief Hebrew Names

What’s in a Name? Quite a bit, actually …

There are many names for God; no one name could express all that He is. The study of them is not only most illuminating but should lead us into intimate fellowship with Him. By it we enter into the heritage of all His people: the unfolding of the progressive self-revelation of God through the ages.

Most of the Old Testament names of God are made up of two words—El (the shortened form of Elohim) or Jehovah, and another word which reveals some specific attribute or grace of God. In these composite titles, the first part has the full wealth of meaning which we see Elohim and Jehovah to possess, and the second part is some further unfolding of His Person, will, or provision for His people.

Elohim

First, in order of use, is Elohim, the word used in Genesis 1:1-2:3. It occurs some 2,550 times in the Old Testament, second only to Jehovah. It means, quite simply, God. The opening words of Scripture make clear its meaning; they declare Him to be supreme, eternal, and almighty, the Creator of the universe.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The absolute monotheism of this statement, written at a time when the peoples of the world believed in many gods, bears the hallmark of divine self-revelation and is one of the most striking attestations of the inspiration of the Scriptures. There is not even a sidelong glance at the gods of the heathen. Elohim alone is the Fount and Source of all life and being.

This declaration concerning God is even more striking in that the word Elohim is afterwards used in the Bible not only for God, but also for the gods of the heathen. That does not mean that these are true gods: they are the figments of men’s minds and the work of their hands—though behind them lurk the powers of evil (Deut. 32:17; 1 Cor. 10:20). When fallen men departed from the true self-revelation of God, they created for themselves the gods they wanted, and, in so doing, they also corrupted the divine title Elohim (Gen. 31:30; Ex. 12:12; 23:24). God had created men for Himself. Estranged from Him, their hearts were restless. But the gods they made in a vain hope of satisfying their need were a degradation of the true revelation of God.

This distinction between God and the gods of the heathen is the theme of many a Bible story. In Egypt, Pharaoh’s magicians could simulate some of the signs which God gave of His power, yet, in the real tests, the gods of Egypt proved impotent. Later, the Philistines, having captured the Ark of the Covenant, thought that this indicated the greater power of their god over Israel’s—until they twice found Dagon ignominiously lying on his face, the second time smashed. Also, on Mount Carmel, the issue was, “The God that answereth by fire, let Him be God”—with the resultant cry, “The LORD, He is the God, the LORD, He is the God” (1 Ki. 18:39).

Elohim is a plural noun. When God speaks in Genesis, it is in the plural: “Let Us make man…” But the verbs used are singular, making indisputably plain that there is no hint in the plural noun of more than one God. This is often explained as a “plural of majesty,” just as reigning monarchs today, in official proclamations and documents, refer to themselves as “we.”

However that may be, devout Christians have always seen in this first of the Old Testament names of God, a foreshadowing of the truth of the Trinity. The use of the plural noun intimates the truth that within the Godhead there is a plurality of Persons. The foundational fact established by the Old Testament is that “The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut. 6:4). But within the one essential Godhead, there are three Persons. God is a Tri-unity. In the Old Testament, however, this was merely hinted. It could not possibly be realized or understood until the full revelation came in the Person and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is ever self-consistent, however, and even if men could not then receive it, the truth of the Trinity was indicated in the very opening words of Scripture.

Other forms of “Elohim”

A simplified form of Elohim, El, is often used, meaning “The Mighty One.” Examples of this are Nehemiah 9:32, “Now therefore, our God (Elohim), the great, the mighty, and the terrible God (El)” and Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God (El).” The thought that underlies both forms of the word is this: God is almighty, able to do precisely and fully according to His will. “God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” He spake, and it was done. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all.

The singular of Elohim, Eloah, is used principally as a poetic form of the word and so occurs chiefly in the poetical books. Its first use occurs in Deuteronomy 32:15, “Then he forsook God (Eloah) which made him.” That God is the only true object of worship is a needful note, alongside that of the almightiness of God. He is not only the One to whom we can turn when in distress; He is the One whom we should worship.

Jehovah

Second only to Elohim, in order of appearance, Jehovah is, above every other name of God, the one most precious to the Jews and the most revealing of His grace toward His people. It is by far the most frequently used of the names of God, occurring some 6,823 times, according to the lexicographers.

A more literal translation of the Hebrew is Yahweh, but that is strange-sounding to us, and Jehovah has come to possess a distinctive value we would be reluctant to forgo. In most translations, it is usually rendered LORD, in capital letters. The only exceptions are when it is joined to Adonai (translated “Lord”). Then it is rendered GOD—Lord GOD (Adonai Jehovah).

The precise meaning of the name is obscure. In the Hebrew, it was originally composed of four consonants: YHWH—known to theologians as “the tetragrammaton”—to which the vowels of Adonai were afterwards added (except when the name is joined to Adonai; then the vowels of Elohim are used). The Jews came to regard the name as too sacred to pronounce, however, and in the public reading of the Scriptures they substituted Adonai for it. Jehovah was to them “the incommunicable name.”

It is generally regarded as derived from the verb “to be,” and some scholars suggest that it means “I am, was, and will be”—anticipating, from the very beginnings of the divine self-revelation to man, the majestic title ascribed to Him by the heavenly host: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8). But God’s own exposition of the name makes its meaning clear—“I AM THAT I AM” (Ex. 3:14). And lest there should be any doubt, He added, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Whereas Elohim reveals Him as the Almighty, Jehovah sets Him forth as the eternal God: “the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” We shall never, in time or eternity, exhaust the revelation of His Being and grace, but we shall go on forever discovering new glories of His Person and attributes. This name, therefore, has aptly been described as “the ineffable name.”

Other forms of Progressive revelation

There is a progressive revelation, indeed, in the use of this name, Jehovah. We first find it in Genesis 2 and 3, used in relation to man. Whereas He created the heavens and the earth as Elohim, as Jehovah He made man in His own image and likeness. The two names are, in fact, joined together in the story of Adam and Eve as Jehovah Elohim (LORD God) to make indisputably plain that Jehovah is Elohim. They are one and the same God.

It is significant that the only exception in Genesis 2 and 3 to the use of the two names coupled together is in the dialogue between Eve and the serpent: there Elohim alone—the impersonal name—is used. But when Eve bore her first son, Cain, she said, “I have gotten a man from Jah.” And in Genesis 4:26, after the sad story of the rapid degeneration of the descendants of Cain, we read concerning the godly line of Seth—“then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.”

Much later, when Moses had suffered his first rebuff from Pharaoh, God said to him, “I am the LORD: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them” (Ex. 6:2-3). This has perplexed many people, for the name Jehovah occurs frequently in Genesis. What is meant is that God was here investing the name with a new meaning. Before this, it had been a title—“the Self-existent One”—now it was to become a personal name. He was not merely “God,” but Jehovah, whom they knew by name, in all the wondrous intimacy which that implies. More than that: He was entering into covenant with them, and Jehovah was His covenant name. It contained within itself the pledge of all that He had promised to do for them and be to them. They were to be His people and He their God. They were to know Him in a personal, covenant relationship.

Other forms of “Jehovah”

In those years of gradual unfolding of His will and purposes and grace, the name Jehovah took on ever new meanings for them. To express these, other names were attached to Jehovah: Jehovah-rapha, “the LORD that healeth”; Jehovah-tsidkenu, “the LORD our righteousness”; Jehovah-nissi, “the LORD my banner,” etc.

Upon the foundations of this knowledge of the LORD gained in the wilderness, Israel in the land of promise proved Him to be all that His name Jehovah had pledged—One who, almighty and unchanging, was indeed “the glory in the midst and a wall of fire round about.” But One who was also jealous of His rightful place as the Lord their God and would by no means ignore their sin. As the people apprehended what He was to them, they began to express their faith in the names they gave their children—Jehoram, “exaltation of God”; Jehoshaphat, “God judges,” etc.

A contraction of Jehovah, Jah, is used some fifty times in the Hebrew Scriptures and is always translated LORD in the King James Version with the single exception of Psalm 68:4, where it is transliterated. It seems to express the thought of gladness on the part of His people in the realization of what God is and does for them. It first occurs in the Song of Moses—“Jah is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation” (Ex. 15:2; cf. Isa. 12:2; 26:4, Jah Jehovah). And “Praise ye the LORD,” occurring some twenty-five times in the Psalms, is “Hallelujah.”

Finally, God, who had revealed Himself at different times and in various ways, came in the Person of His Son to make Himself fully known. Jesus, whose name is an abbreviation of Jehoshua, “Jehovah the Saviour,” reveals the Lord our God. He declared Himself to be the “I am,” again and again assuming that divine title, with all that it implied (Jn. 8:58). He is the living One, having life in Himself. In Him, we have the heart of God revealed.