The taboo and Masoretic vocalization

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The Old Testament uses a personal name for God, often called the Tetragrammaton. In Hebrew it is יהוה, and commonly rendered as “Jehovah,” “YHWH,” or “Yahweh.” Yet many modern translations replace this name with a title: “the LORD.” This choice carries inevitable consequences. Removing or hiding the divine name in translation is not a trivial stylistic decision, but a substantial alteration, affecting thousands of occurrences. One of the reasons translations have done this is that, after the Hebrew Bible was written, a Jewish tradition arose, forbidding the vocalization of God’s name. The history of Bible translation reflects the triumph of this tradition.

Generally, the goal of Bible translation is fidelity to the source text, conveying what the authors actually wrote. In the case of names, the usual practice is to transliterate them, preserving an approximation of the proper name in the target language, using that language’s phonetic inventory. This is done for all names in the Bible (David, Jerusalem, Sarah, etc.), except for the divine name. From the standpoint of historical and textual accuracy, no other feature of the biblical text has received the same systematic concealment. The result is that many English readers do not even realize God has a personal name. Generations have come and gone hearing “the LORD” as if it were God’s actual name. And I was no exception.

Literature on the divine name often overlooks one simple question: what is God’s desire concerning his name? History and traditions fade in comparison to this question. And the Bible indeed reveals what God wants with explicit clarity. Thus, we begin with his instruction revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:15 to frame everything else in this book:

“Say this to the people of Israel, ‘YHWH (יהוה), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Let’s look at this verse in detail.

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