Yahweh (Jehovah)

Yahweh is God's personal name, the one he revealed to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked what name to give the people, God answered, “I AM THAT I AM.” It is the most mysterious and profound of all his names.

In most English Bibles, including the King James Version, this name is printed as “the LORD” in small capitals, to set it apart from the ordinary word for lord. Jewish reverence for the name is so deep it was traditionally not spoken aloud.

“I AM” tells us God simply is — self-existing, dependent on nothing, without beginning or end. He does not derive his life from anywhere; he is the source of life itself. Everything else that exists is contingent; he alone always is.

This is also God's covenant name, the name by which he binds himself to his people. To know God as Yahweh is to know that the eternal, self-existing One has chosen to be your God — present tense, always, “I AM.”