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.
1In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell on me there. 2Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire—from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire, and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal. 3He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north, where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.
5Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.”
So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
6He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.”
7He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. 8Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.”
When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.
9He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.”
10So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. 11Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the cloud of incense went up.
12Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” 13He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.”
14Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. 15Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.”
16He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and I saw at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.
17Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. 18Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”