ACCURATE TRANSLATION OF THE COMMONEST HEBREW NOUN IN THE BIBLE, “YHWH,” PRONOUNCED “YAHWEH,” TRANSLATED TO “LORD” IN KJV; ITS CONTRACTED FORM, “JAH,” PRONOUNCED “YAH,” TRANSLATED ALSO TO “LORD” OR LEFT UNTRANSLATED IN PSALM 68:4; AND A VARIATION OF IT, TRANSLATED TO “GOD.”
The noun, “Yhwh,” pronounced “Yahweh,” with which God identified Himself to Moses (Ex. 6:3) first, is the commonest noun in the Bible, appearing along with its contracted form and a variation of it 5,861 times in the First Testament only (KJV), far above the number of occurence of the nouns “elohim” pronounced “eloheem” and “el,” pronounced “ale,” translated to “God,” which together appear 2,563 times in both Testaments. Ironically, this commonest identifier of God, unveiled by God personally to reveal His greatness so that men will always be in awe of Him, is what has posed a lot of difficulty to translators, such that some even avoided translating it entirely, which is also the reason it completely disappears in the Final Testament in ALL translations, making the two testaments appear to be given by different deities. (It is noteworthy that He was called by that identifier in the Final Testament too, only that translators were oblivious of it because it was translated to Greek.) Let us consider different translations given to the identifier according to Ex. 6:3:
* I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. (NIV)
* I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. (NLT)
* I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (Israel) as God Almighty [El Shaddai], but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles]. (Amplified)
* As God the Almighty I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but by my name, LORD, I did not make myself known to them. (NAB)
* That appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; and my name ADONAI I did not shew them. (DRB)
* and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name יהוה I made Me not known to them. (JPS Tanakh 1917)
* and I appear to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; as for My Name YHWH, I have not been known to them; (LSV)
* And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. (WBT)
* And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them by my name 'the LORD.' (NHEB)
* and I appear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; as to My name Jehovah, I have not been known to them; (YLT)
While three of these ten translations avoided translating it, one even deviated from the norm so much as to translate it to another Hebrew word, “Adonai.”
To get its accurate translation, one needs to visit the genesis of the identifier: When Moses was reluctant to go to Pharaoh to deliver His message to him, God told him, “I am YHWH: I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by My identifier, YHWH, I was not known to them” — Ex. 6:3 - KJV paraphrased. (God had earlier told him when He commissioned him to go and tell the children of Israel that He was going to deliver them, that He is the “I AM THAT I AM” and that he should tell them that “I AM” sent him – Ex. 3:14.) Armed with the new identifiers, Moses went to Pharaoh and told him, “YHWH, the God of Israel says, ‘Let My people go that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness’.” (Ex. 5:1 – KJV paraphrased). Pharaoh retorted, “Who is YHWH, that I should obey Him to release Israel? I don’t know that YHWH. I will not allow Israel to go.”