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The name YHWH

Hebrew יְהוָה. Also called Yahweh, The LORD, Tetragrammaton, Jehovah, Yah, YHWH.

God’s own name in the Hebrew Bible, four consonants written 6,827 times, which some translations spell out as Yahweh and others replace with “the LORD”.

The name is four Hebrew consonants, YHWH. Out of reverence, Jewish readers came to say Adonai, “my Lord”, wherever it was written, and most English Bibles follow them: they print “the LORD” in small capitals to show that the name stands behind it. The WEB and some others write it out as Yahweh, the pronunciation most scholars reconstruct; the LSV keeps the bare consonants. The name is tied to God’s answer to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”, and a short form, Yah, closes every “Hallelujah”, praise Yah. Its use is uneven: Esther never names God at all, Ecclesiastes says only “God”, and the name is densest in the last of the prophets.

How the translations show the name, and how often each book uses it

One name, four ways of showing it

Verse WEB KJV BSB LSV
Genesis 2:4the name with “God” Yahweh God the LORD God the LORD God YHWH God
Exodus 3:15the name given to Moses Yahweh The LORD The LORD YHWH
Ezekiel 2:4“Lord” with the name the Lord Yahweh the Lord GOD the Lord GOD Lord YHWH
Psalm 68:4the short form Yah Yah Jah the LORD YAH

LORD in small capitals stands for the name; “Lord” in ordinary type is another word, adonai, master. Where the two stand together, translations that use LORD write “Lord GOD” instead, so the name still shows.

Where the name is used

  • 6,827 times the name
  • 2,600 times Elohim, God
  1. Genesis 165 times the name, · 219 times God
  2. Exodus 397 times the name, · 139 times God
  3. Leviticus 311 times the name, · 53 times God
  4. Numbers 396 times the name, · 27 times God
  5. Deuteronomy 550 times the name, · 374 times God
  6. Joshua 224 times the name, · 76 times God
  7. Judges 175 times the name, · 73 times God
  8. Ruth 18 times the name, · 4 times God
  9. 1 Samuel 320 times the name, · 100 times God
  10. 2 Samuel 153 times the name, · 54 times God
  11. 1 Kings 257 times the name, · 108 times God
  12. 2 Kings 277 times the name, · 98 times God
  13. 1 Chronicles 175 times the name, · 118 times God
  14. 2 Chronicles 384 times the name, · 203 times God
  15. Ezra 37 times the name, · 98 times God *
  16. Nehemiah 17 times the name, · 70 times God
  17. Esther 0 times the name, · 0 times God
  18. Job 32 times the name, · 17 times God
  19. Psalms 695 times the name, · 362 times God
  20. Proverbs 87 times the name, · 5 times God
  21. Ecclesiastes 0 times the name, · 40 times God
  22. Song of Solomon 0 times the name, · 0 times God
  23. Isaiah 450 times the name, · 94 times God
  24. Jeremiah 726 times the name, · 146 times God *
  25. Lamentations 32 times the name, · 0 times God
  26. Ezekiel 434 times the name, · 36 times God
  27. Daniel 8 times the name, · 75 times God *
  28. Hosea 46 times the name, · 26 times God
  29. Joel 33 times the name, · 11 times God
  30. Amos 81 times the name, · 14 times God
  31. Obadiah 7 times the name, · 0 times God
  32. Jonah 26 times the name, · 16 times God
  33. Micah 40 times the name, · 11 times God
  34. Nahum 13 times the name, · 1 times God
  35. Habakkuk 13 times the name, · 3 times God
  36. Zephaniah 34 times the name, · 5 times God
  37. Haggai 35 times the name, · 3 times God
  38. Zechariah 133 times the name, · 11 times God
  39. Malachi 46 times the name, · 7 times God

Counted in the site’s Hebrew text by Strong’s number (H3068 and H3069 for the name, H430 for Elohim). Esther never names God at all, Ecclesiastes says only “God”, and the Song of Songs has neither, unless “a very flame of Yah” (8:6) is read as the name. * Ezra and Daniel include Aramaic chapters, and Jeremiah one Aramaic verse (10:11), where the word for God is elah; it is counted with Elohim there.

Where it appears

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