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Beginning first with Easton dictionary and commentary, for no particular reason except it is comprehensive.
LORD
There are various Hebrew and Greek words so rendered.
(1.) Heb. Jehovah, has been rendered in the English Bible Lord, printed in small capitals. This is the proper name of the God of the Hebrews. The form “Jehovah” is retained only in Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18; Isa_12:2; Isa_26:4, both in the Authorized and the Revised Version.
(2.) Heb. 'adon, means one possessed of absolute control. It denotes a master, as of slaves (Gen_24:14, Gen_24:27), or a ruler of his subjects (Gen_45:8), or a husband, as lord of his wife (Gen_18:12).The old plural form of this Hebrew word is 'adonai. From a superstitious reverence for the name “Jehovah,” the Jews, in reading their Scriptures, whenever that name occurred, always pronounced it 'Adonai.
(3.) Greek kurios, a supreme master, etc. In the LXX. this is invariably used for “Jehovah” and “'Adonai.”
(4.) Heb. ba'al, a master, as having domination. This word is applied to human relations, as that of husband, to persons skilled in some art or profession, and to heathen deities. “The men of Shechem,” literally “the baals of Shechem” (Jdg_9:2, Jdg_9:3). These were the Israelite inhabitants who had reduced the Canaanites to a condition of vassalage (Jos_16:10; Jos_17:13).
(5.) Heb. seren, applied exclusively to the “lords of the Philistines” (Jdg_3:3). The LXX. render it by satrapies. At this period the Philistines were not, as at a later period (1Sa_21:10), under a kingly government. (See Jos_13:3; 1Sa_6:18.) There were five such lordships, viz., Gath, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron.
JEHOVAH
The special and significant name (not merely an appellative title such as Lord) by which God revealed himself to the ancient Hebrews (Exo_6:2, Exo_6:3). 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 Lev_24:16. The meaning of the word appears from Exo_3:14 to be “the unchanging, eternal, self-existent God,” the “I am that I am,” a covenant-keeping God. (Compare Mal_3:6; Hos_12:5; Rev_1:4, Rev_1:8.)
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 Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18; Isa_12:2; Isa_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.
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FAUSSET DICITIONARY AND COMMENTARY
LORD
(See JEHOVAH.) In small letters and with initial capital "Lord" represents Adonai in KJV of Old Testament. In capitals "LORD" represents Jehovah, except Exo_23:17. The "LORD God", Adonai Jehovah, where it ought to be "the Lord Jehovah," and Exo_34:23. "GOD" in capitals also represents Jehovah (Gen_15:2, 'Adonay Yahweh). "God" in small letters, with initial capital, represents 'Elohiym. (See GOD.)
JEHOVAH
Jahaveh or Yahaveh is probahly the correct form (the vowel pointing in Jehovah is derived from A-d-o-n-ay) from the substantive verb haawah (found only six times in the Bible; obsolete in Moses' time; retained in Chaldee and Syriac from a time anterior to the division of the Semitic languages), for the more modern haayah, to be; a proof of the great antiquity of the name: "I AM THAT I AM" is the key of the name (Exo_3:14), expressing unchanging Being. The name was old and known long before; it appears compounded in Jo-chebed and Mor-iah, and simply in Genesis 2 and afterward. But its significance in relation to God's people was new, and now first becoming experimentally known. (See GENESIS; GOD; EXODUS.)
Exo_6:2-3; "I am JEHOVAH, and I appeared unto Abraham,... by the name of God Almighty (El-Shaddai), but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known": its full and precious import is only now about to be revealed. To the patriarchs He was known, when giving the promises, as GOD, Almighty to fulfill them (Gen_17:1); to Moses as Jehovah unchangeably faithful (Mal_3:6) in keeping them; compare Heb_13:8, which identifies Jesus with Jehovah. Elohim can do all that He wills; Yahweh will do all that He has promised. Elohim (the plural expressing the fullness of God's powers) is appropriate to creation (Genesis 1 - 2:3); JEHOVAH ELOHIM to paradise and to the covenant of grace at the fall; the combination identifies the Jehovah of the moral government with the Elohim of creation.
If JEHOVAH had been a name of more recent introduction, the whole nation would never have accepted it with such universal reverence. Elohim appears in the trial of Abraham's faith (Genesis 22); Jehovah, in its triumph. The last 19 chapters of Genesis, from Jacob's meeting the angels and Esau, have Elohim alone (except in the history of Judah and Pharez, Genesis 38; and Joseph's first entrance into Egypt, Genesis 39; and Jacob's dying exclamation, Gen_49:18; the beginning and close of the long period of sorrow and patient waiting) to prepare by contrast for the fuller revelation to Moses, when Jehovah is made known in its full and experimental preciousness. "To be made known" (Exo_6:3) means to be manifested in act (Psa_9:17; Psa_48:3-6), making good in fact all that was implied in the name (Eze_20:9) (nodatiy).
The name was not new to Israel, for it occurs before Exo_6:3 in Exo_3:16; Exo_4:1. ELOHIM, from aalah "to be strong" (Furst), rather than from Arabic aliha, "astonishment", alaha, "worship" (Hengstenberg), the Deity, expresses His eternal power and Godhead manifested in nature, commanding our reverence; JEHOVAH the Personal God in covenant with His people, manifesting boundless mercy, righteousness, and faithfulness to His word. So "Immanuel" is used not of the mere appellation, but of His proving in fact to be what the name means (Isa_7:14). The "I AM" (Exo_3:14) is to be filled up thus: I am to My people all whatever they want. Prayer is to supply the ellipsis, pleading God's covenanted promises: light, life, peace, salvation, glory, their exceeding great reward, etc. I am all that My word declares, and their threefold nature, body, soul, and spirit, requires. I am always all this to them (Joh_8:58). "Before Abraham began, to be (Greek) I am" (Mat_28:20).
The Jews by a misunderstanding of Lev_24:16 ("utters distinctly" instead of "blasphemeth") fear to use the name, saying instead "the name," "the four lettered name," "the great and terrible name." So Septuagint, Vulgate, and even KJV (except in four places "Jehovah": Isa_12:2; Isa_26:4; Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18) has "THE LORD," which in CAPITALS represents JEHOVAH, in small letters Adonai. Maimonides restricts its use to the priests' blessings and to the sanctuary; others to the high priest on the day of atonement, when entering the holy of holies. The Samaritans pronounced the name Yabe (Theodoret); found also in Epiphanius; Yahu in such names as Obadiah (Obad-yahu).
So that Jahveh (or Yahveh or Yahweh) seems the correct pronunciation. The Hebrew said the Elohim, in opposition to false gods; but never the Jehovah, for Jehovah means the true God only. Again, My God, Elohay, but not My Jehovah, for Jehovah by itself means this covenant relation to one. Again, the Elohim of Israel; but not the Jehovah of Israel, for there is no other Jehovah. Again, the living Elohim, but not the living Jehovah; for Jehovah means this without the epithet. Jehovah is in Old Testament the God of redemption. The correlative of Elohim is man, of Jehovah redeemed man. Elohim is God in nature, Jehovah God in grace (Exo_34:6-7).
Elohim is the God of providence; Jehovah is the God of promise and prophecy; hence, the prophets' formula is, "thus saith Jehovah," not Elohim. Elohim is wider in meaning, embracing the representatives of Deity, angels and human judges and rulers (Psa_82:6; Joh_10:34-35). Jehovah is deeper, the incommunicable name. The more frequent use of the name Jehovah from Samuel's time is due to the religious revival then inaugurated, and to the commencement of the regular school of prophets. In the first four verses of the Bhagavat God says to Brahma, "I was at first ... afterward I AM THAT WHICH IS, and He who must remain am I." (Sir W. Jones).
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Beginning first with Easton dictionary and commentary, for no particular reason except it is comprehensive.
LORD
There are various Hebrew and Greek words so rendered.
(1.) Heb. Jehovah, has been rendered in the English Bible Lord, printed in small capitals. This is the proper name of the God of the Hebrews. The form “Jehovah” is retained only in Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18; Isa_12:2; Isa_26:4, both in the Authorized and the Revised Version.
(2.) Heb. 'adon, means one possessed of absolute control. It denotes a master, as of slaves (Gen_24:14, Gen_24:27), or a ruler of his subjects (Gen_45:8), or a husband, as lord of his wife (Gen_18:12).The old plural form of this Hebrew word is 'adonai. From a superstitious reverence for the name “Jehovah,” the Jews, in reading their Scriptures, whenever that name occurred, always pronounced it 'Adonai.
(3.) Greek kurios, a supreme master, etc. In the LXX. this is invariably used for “Jehovah” and “'Adonai.”
(4.) Heb. ba'al, a master, as having domination. This word is applied to human relations, as that of husband, to persons skilled in some art or profession, and to heathen deities. “The men of Shechem,” literally “the baals of Shechem” (Jdg_9:2, Jdg_9:3). These were the Israelite inhabitants who had reduced the Canaanites to a condition of vassalage (Jos_16:10; Jos_17:13).
(5.) Heb. seren, applied exclusively to the “lords of the Philistines” (Jdg_3:3). The LXX. render it by satrapies. At this period the Philistines were not, as at a later period (1Sa_21:10), under a kingly government. (See Jos_13:3; 1Sa_6:18.) There were five such lordships, viz., Gath, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron.
JEHOVAH
The special and significant name (not merely an appellative title such as Lord) by which God revealed himself to the ancient Hebrews (Exo_6:2, Exo_6:3). 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 Lev_24:16. The meaning of the word appears from Exo_3:14 to be “the unchanging, eternal, self-existent God,” the “I am that I am,” a covenant-keeping God. (Compare Mal_3:6; Hos_12:5; Rev_1:4, Rev_1:8.)
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 Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18; Isa_12:2; Isa_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.
======================
FAUSSET DICITIONARY AND COMMENTARY
LORD
(See JEHOVAH.) In small letters and with initial capital "Lord" represents Adonai in KJV of Old Testament. In capitals "LORD" represents Jehovah, except Exo_23:17. The "LORD God", Adonai Jehovah, where it ought to be "the Lord Jehovah," and Exo_34:23. "GOD" in capitals also represents Jehovah (Gen_15:2, 'Adonay Yahweh). "God" in small letters, with initial capital, represents 'Elohiym. (See GOD.)
JEHOVAH
Jahaveh or Yahaveh is probahly the correct form (the vowel pointing in Jehovah is derived from A-d-o-n-ay) from the substantive verb haawah (found only six times in the Bible; obsolete in Moses' time; retained in Chaldee and Syriac from a time anterior to the division of the Semitic languages), for the more modern haayah, to be; a proof of the great antiquity of the name: "I AM THAT I AM" is the key of the name (Exo_3:14), expressing unchanging Being. The name was old and known long before; it appears compounded in Jo-chebed and Mor-iah, and simply in Genesis 2 and afterward. But its significance in relation to God's people was new, and now first becoming experimentally known. (See GENESIS; GOD; EXODUS.)
Exo_6:2-3; "I am JEHOVAH, and I appeared unto Abraham,... by the name of God Almighty (El-Shaddai), but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known": its full and precious import is only now about to be revealed. To the patriarchs He was known, when giving the promises, as GOD, Almighty to fulfill them (Gen_17:1); to Moses as Jehovah unchangeably faithful (Mal_3:6) in keeping them; compare Heb_13:8, which identifies Jesus with Jehovah. Elohim can do all that He wills; Yahweh will do all that He has promised. Elohim (the plural expressing the fullness of God's powers) is appropriate to creation (Genesis 1 - 2:3); JEHOVAH ELOHIM to paradise and to the covenant of grace at the fall; the combination identifies the Jehovah of the moral government with the Elohim of creation.
If JEHOVAH had been a name of more recent introduction, the whole nation would never have accepted it with such universal reverence. Elohim appears in the trial of Abraham's faith (Genesis 22); Jehovah, in its triumph. The last 19 chapters of Genesis, from Jacob's meeting the angels and Esau, have Elohim alone (except in the history of Judah and Pharez, Genesis 38; and Joseph's first entrance into Egypt, Genesis 39; and Jacob's dying exclamation, Gen_49:18; the beginning and close of the long period of sorrow and patient waiting) to prepare by contrast for the fuller revelation to Moses, when Jehovah is made known in its full and experimental preciousness. "To be made known" (Exo_6:3) means to be manifested in act (Psa_9:17; Psa_48:3-6), making good in fact all that was implied in the name (Eze_20:9) (nodatiy).
The name was not new to Israel, for it occurs before Exo_6:3 in Exo_3:16; Exo_4:1. ELOHIM, from aalah "to be strong" (Furst), rather than from Arabic aliha, "astonishment", alaha, "worship" (Hengstenberg), the Deity, expresses His eternal power and Godhead manifested in nature, commanding our reverence; JEHOVAH the Personal God in covenant with His people, manifesting boundless mercy, righteousness, and faithfulness to His word. So "Immanuel" is used not of the mere appellation, but of His proving in fact to be what the name means (Isa_7:14). The "I AM" (Exo_3:14) is to be filled up thus: I am to My people all whatever they want. Prayer is to supply the ellipsis, pleading God's covenanted promises: light, life, peace, salvation, glory, their exceeding great reward, etc. I am all that My word declares, and their threefold nature, body, soul, and spirit, requires. I am always all this to them (Joh_8:58). "Before Abraham began, to be (Greek) I am" (Mat_28:20).
The Jews by a misunderstanding of Lev_24:16 ("utters distinctly" instead of "blasphemeth") fear to use the name, saying instead "the name," "the four lettered name," "the great and terrible name." So Septuagint, Vulgate, and even KJV (except in four places "Jehovah": Isa_12:2; Isa_26:4; Exo_6:3; Psa_83:18) has "THE LORD," which in CAPITALS represents JEHOVAH, in small letters Adonai. Maimonides restricts its use to the priests' blessings and to the sanctuary; others to the high priest on the day of atonement, when entering the holy of holies. The Samaritans pronounced the name Yabe (Theodoret); found also in Epiphanius; Yahu in such names as Obadiah (Obad-yahu).
So that Jahveh (or Yahveh or Yahweh) seems the correct pronunciation. The Hebrew said the Elohim, in opposition to false gods; but never the Jehovah, for Jehovah means the true God only. Again, My God, Elohay, but not My Jehovah, for Jehovah by itself means this covenant relation to one. Again, the Elohim of Israel; but not the Jehovah of Israel, for there is no other Jehovah. Again, the living Elohim, but not the living Jehovah; for Jehovah means this without the epithet. Jehovah is in Old Testament the God of redemption. The correlative of Elohim is man, of Jehovah redeemed man. Elohim is God in nature, Jehovah God in grace (Exo_34:6-7).
Elohim is the God of providence; Jehovah is the God of promise and prophecy; hence, the prophets' formula is, "thus saith Jehovah," not Elohim. Elohim is wider in meaning, embracing the representatives of Deity, angels and human judges and rulers (Psa_82:6; Joh_10:34-35). Jehovah is deeper, the incommunicable name. The more frequent use of the name Jehovah from Samuel's time is due to the religious revival then inaugurated, and to the commencement of the regular school of prophets. In the first four verses of the Bhagavat God says to Brahma, "I was at first ... afterward I AM THAT WHICH IS, and He who must remain am I." (Sir W. Jones).
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