Strictly speaking, the only personal name of God belonging to Him alone, and the most significant name of God found in the Old Testament (over 5000 times). Yahweh is the approximate (and likely) pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, the four-letter word YHWH. When Moses asked what His name was to take back to the Hebrews in Egypt, God replied, “I AM THAT I AM (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑הehyeh esher ehyeh): and he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I AM (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה, ehyeh, 1st person singular, giving God's declaration of His name) has sent me to you” (Exod 3:14). Thus God revealed to Moses the very essential meaning of His name as Yahweh (יְהוָ֞ה, Yahweh, 3rd person singular, the response of the people of God, He is). There is a strong indication that Jesus (or Yeshua, Yahweh is salvation) used this name and its divine implication to apply to himself when he said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (ἐγὼ εἰμί, egō eimi) (John 8:58). Thus, the very Person who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush was the very same Person who addressed the startled Jews in the Gospel of John.
For a more complete discussion of the personal name of God, see the passage in Exodus in which He reveals His name to Moses, Exodus 3:14, 15.
A Name of God (אֱלֹהִים; 'elohim)
Word Study
| Hershel Wayne House
אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym·Strong's H430
This is a generic name for the divine being. In the Hebrew Bible, the word is regularly used in the plural in reference to the God of Israel but in regard to His majesty or intensity. The plural has a third person singular with the God of Israel, but a third plural with foreign deities.
Abba, Father
Word Study
| Hershel Wayne House • Steve Stanley
ἈββᾶAbbâ·Strong's G5
This Aramaic term is used only three times in the NT and approximately 80 times in the writings of the early church fathers when quoting or paraphrasing Jesus’ words. It is translated by the very next word in this verse as ὁ πατήρ (ho pater) “the Father,” as it is in all three NT uses. Jesus spoke in Aramaic, and Hebrew, both languages being used in Israel. In Jesus’ day, abba was used for the father in the family, and was a customary title for God in prayer among the Jews. It was eventually taken over by Greek-speaking Christians as a liturgical formula. Some posit that abba is equivalent to “daddy,” an American English term for “father.” This assumes that the American informality expressed by children toward their father would have an analogy in Jesus’ culture, an assumption difficult to sustain. It is, therefore, not appropriate to refer to God as “daddy.” Linguistically, then, abba means "father" in Hebrew, Greek and English. It must be noted, however, that while “father” is a term of respect in biblical literature, it is also a term of affection, very deep and abiding affection. With His use of “Abba,” Jesus expresses His respectful and intimate relationship with His Heavenly Father in prayer, a wonderful example for all believers.
1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. 2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. 15Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to defy the living God. 17Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. 19Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Yahweh, are God alone.”
20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you. 21This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 22Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon, and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field. 24I have dug and drunk strange waters, and I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt with the sole of my feet.” 25Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 26Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops and like grain blasted before it has grown up. 27But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 28Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’
29“This will be the sign to you: This year, you will eat that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. Yahweh’s zeal will perform this.
32“Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 33He will return the same way that he came, and he will not come to this city,’ says Yahweh. 34‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’”
35That night, Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went home, and lived at Nineveh. 37As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.