Yahweh - Name

Name

Biblical Hebrew was written with consonants only, meaning that the name was written יהוה (YHWH). The original pronunciation was lost many centuries ago, but the available evidence indicates that it was in all likelihood Yahweh.

The components of YHWH are Y, meaning roughly "he", and the consonantal root HWH, which is connected with acts of creation. There appear to be two main lines of reasoning to explain the origin of the name. The first suggests that it is the shortened form of a sentence used in worship, "he causes to be" or "he creates", from el du yahwi seba'ot, "el who creates the hosts", meaning the heavenly army accompanying the god El as he marched out beside the earthly armies of Israel.

The second looks for the origins of Yahweh to the southeast of Israel, in Edom and Midian or even further, in South Semitic languages like Arabic. HWY in Arabic is connected with falling or causing to fall, leading to an interpretation of Yahweh as a storm god whose name means "He who causes to fall" (meaning rain, lightning, and his enemies) or "He causes storms". This helps explain Yahweh's attributes as a storm god (he comes to rescue Israel surrounded by darkness and thick clouds, and the earth trembles, the clouds drop water, and the mountains quake at his appearance), and the way he appropriates attributes from the rival storm god Baʿal.