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.
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 3Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure gold lamp stand before Yahweh continually.
5“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. 6You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before Yahweh. 7You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 8Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel. 9It shall be for Aaron and his sons. They shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire by a perpetual statute.”
10The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12They put him in custody until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them. 13Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 14“Bring him who cursed out of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.
17“‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death. 18He who strikes an animal mortally shall make it good, life for life. 19If anyone injures his neighbor, it shall be done to him as he has done: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It shall be done to him as he has injured someone. 21He who kills an animal shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death. 22You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am Yahweh your God.’”
23Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.