1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights:
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2He will not shout,
nor raise his voice,
nor cause it to be heard in the street.
3He won’t break a bruised reed.
He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.
He will faithfully bring justice.
4He will not fail nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice in the earth,
and the islands wait for his law.”
5God Yahweh,
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness.
I will hold your hand.
I will keep you,
and make you a covenant for the people,
as a light for the nations,
7to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
8“I am Yahweh.
That is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to engraved images.
9Behold, the former things have happened
and I declare new things.
I tell you about them before they come up.”
10Sing to Yahweh a new song,
and his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea,
and all that is therein,
the islands and their inhabitants.
11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
12Let them give glory to Yahweh,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.
He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
He will raise a war cry.
Yes, he will shout aloud.
He will triumph over his enemies.
14“I have been silent a long time.
I have been quiet and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15I will destroy mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbs.
I will make the rivers islands,
and will dry up the pools.
16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.
I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.
I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked places straight.
I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.
17“Those who trust in engraved images,
who tell molten images,
‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back.
They will be utterly disappointed.
18“Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind,
that you may see.
19Who is blind, but my servant?
Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?
20You see many things, but don’t observe.
His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law
and make it honorable.
22But this is a robbed and plundered people.
All of them are snared in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become captives, and no one delivers,
and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
23Who is there among you who will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24Who gave Jacob as plunder,
and Israel to the robbers?
Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in his ways,
and they disobeyed his law.
25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,
and the strength of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.
It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
The people of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East worshipped many gods, each one possessing a proper name. The Greek-speaking world had a number of gods, such as Zeus, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Ares, with Latin counterparts of Jupiter, Diana, Venus, and Mars. As well, the Egyptians had many gods, the chief being Ra, the sun god. The kingdom of the Babylonians, among whom a large number of Israelites lived after the deportation had Marduk as their chief deity. The Canaanites worshipped several gods, the most known being Ba'al and Asherah, Ba'al's consort. All of these nations had proper names of their deities, as given above, and also more generic designations, such as god and lord (master). The same is true of the God of the Hebrews/Israelites. They referred to their deity as God and Lord, but we find in the history of God's revelation to His people that He also gave to them through Moses' encounter with the Israelite deity on Mt. Horeb, that their God also had a proper name.
When Moses came before the God of the Israelites He had some specific instructions. Look at His words to His prophet and spokesman as He indicated that He would be bringing His people out of bondage after they were in Egypt for approximately 400 years, foretold in Genesis 15:13-16, to possess the land of Israel that was inhabited with worshippers of false gods. In Exodus 3, the Hebrew deity said that having heard the cries of His people He had come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and take them to the land promised to Abraham.
Upon hearing these divine words, Moses inquired of God regarding the name of the God before Him. The reply is clear, forceful, and commanding: "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.'" (Exod 3:14). These Hebrew words are God's proclamation of Himself, words that only He could proclaim. They are the same words that Jesus gave to the challenge of the unbelieving Jews in John 8:58 (the Greek text says eγω ειμι (ego (I) eimi (I am)), or I myself am. Having given this personal statement, the I AM provides for Moses and the Israelites how they were to address Him. "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This (referring to Yahweh) is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). Having given this revelation of His personal name to Moses, to be taught to the Israelites, this personal name is given several more times in His address to Moses. One will observe in the text of the Old Testament the name of the true God (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Israel), approximately 6,000 times as the personal name by which He was known and addressed in the Hebrew Scriptures (see specifics about the name Yahweh in Exod 3 discussion above.
This exposition gives rise to why the personal name of God, said to be His name forever and for all generations, is often not known and is not pronounced among Jews and Christians alike. There are several reasons why this may be so.
| Hebrew | ה | ו | ה | י |
| Greek | β | ι | ||
| English | h | w | h | y |
Greek manuscripts and church fathers had difficulty using the name since the language did not have a y or h: yahweh (Hebrew and English have y, h, w, while Greek and Latin do not have a y, h, or w). Yet some fathers and manuscripts use the equivalent of Yahweh as ιαε or ιαβε for יהוה (iae or iabe for Yahweh).
4. Since Yahweh was the name for the Jews to acknowledge the God of their fathers through all generations, is there any importance for the Christians today? In the preface of the 1971 New American Standard Version of the Bible there is an interesting paragraph:
THE PROPER NAME OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: In the Scriptures, the name of God is most significant and understandably so. It is inconceivable to think of spiritual matters without a proper designation for the Supreme Deity. Thus the most common name for the Deity is God, a translation of the original Elohim. One of the titles for God is Lord, a translation of Adonai. There is yet another name that is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH (Exod 3:14 and Isa 42:8). This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently translated LORD. The only exception to this translation of YHWH is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion. It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.
5. The writers of the preface acknowledge the importance of having a proper designation for the Supreme Deity, as in fact religions throughout history and today have such names, but when it comes to the God of the Bible, who provided the name He wanted to be known by in the Old Testament, this is the one that is not used and is ignored. Those who wrote the preface indicate that YHWH has been spoken as Yahweh (note Hallelu-yah), "no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation." This is an odd statement. We know that the pronunciation of Yahweh is as correct as most of what we know in biblical scholarship, yet it is not used (with the exception of the Jerusalem Bible, World English Bible, and Christian Standard Bible). The use of Yahweh does not appear to be a requirement for Christians. Nonetheless, I believe that the name that was given by God for the people of the Abrahamic Covenant has some basis for Christians to use the divine name when dealing with the Hebrew Scriptures since this is an eternal name He has given and is His proper name in the Old Testament.