Yahweh is the usual modern pronunciation of YHWH, the four Hebrew letters — the Tetragrammaton — that form the personal name of the God of Israel.
Those vowels are a reconstruction. The name went unspoken for so long that its original sound had to be inferred — from early Greek transcriptions, and from short forms like Yah, preserved in Hebrew names and in a verse such as Psalm 68:4. Most scholars settle on “Yahweh.”
The Bible ties the name to the burning bush, where God answers Moses with a phrase built on the Hebrew verb “to be” (Exodus 3:14–15) — read in later tradition as a claim of self-existence, and of covenant faithfulness.
Out of reverence, Second Temple Judaism stopped pronouncing the name aloud and read Adonai (“Lord”) in its place. That practice carried into the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, which renders it Kyrios (“Lord”), and into most English Bibles, which print “the LORD” in small capitals. The glossary also covers I AM and the full list of the Names of God.
Explore Yahweh and related terms in the full glossary → a.fortt.com/glossary-app
How this is made · A Fortt Media project, created & edited by Jon Fortt. Grounded in a curated Scripture database and carefully drafted and audited with the help of AI — described plainly, and written to assume no particular denomination or doctrine. Read the full approach → · Report a correction →
