Daily Help

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

Overflow

***

(Today’s Reading)

YHWH in the Old Testament

(Essay Installment 4)

YHWH in Human Names

While we’re on the subject of personal names, we should recognize that the name YHWH is even more ubiquitous in the Old Testament than we’ve seen so far. I’m talking about how some of Israel’s parents included YHWH in the names they created for their children.

Birth Names

No parents named a child YHWH. Nor was the name YHWH ever embedded whole into an infant’s name. Rather, YHWH was abbreviated and made either a suffix or prefix of the child’s name. Here are examples from the Old Testament.

• YHWH as a suffix
  • Isaiah means “YHWH is salvation”
  • Jeremiah means “YHWH exalts” or “appoints”
  • Ezekiel means “YHWH strengthens”
  • Elijah means “My God is YHWH”
  • Obadiah means “Servant of YHWH”
  • Zechariah means “YHWH remembers”
  • Zephaniah means “YHWH has hidden” or “protected”
  • Uriah means “YHWH is my light”
  • Gedaliah means “YHWH is great”
  • Hananiah means “YHWH is gracious”
  • Shemaiah means “YHWH has heard”
• YHWH as a prefix
  • Joshua means “YHWH is salvation”
  • Jehoshaphat means “YHWH has judged”
  • Jehoiakim means “YHWH raises up”
  • Jehoiachin means “YHWH establishes”
  • Jehoram means “YHWH is exalted”
  • Jehu means “YHWH is he”
  • Joash means “YHWH has given”
  • Josiah means “YHWH supports” or “heals”
  • Zedekiah means “YHWH is righteousness”
  • Adonijah means “My Lord is YHWH”

This list is only a sample of the names that could have been included. An exhaustive list of unique names like this (that is, derived from YHWH and found in the Old Testament) would be about five times this size.

Consider also that any children subsequently given any of these names (which would be a great many) are not included in the counts because additional descendants would not be unique occurrences of the name. Thus is YHWH’s name even more ubiquitous in the Old Testament than we thought.

One Particular Name

There is one particular name that deserves discussion before we leave the subject of human names that include reference to YHWH.

Hoshea the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, had been one of the many slaves in Israel led out by Moses. Hoshea means “he saves” or “salvation,” but makes no explicit reference to YHWH or anyone else. Once out of Egypt, however, Moses appointed a team of men to conduct reconnaissance in the promised land of Canaan. In making the appointment of Hoshea, he did something he didn’t do with the other men…and he did it without explanation.

Numbers 13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

Moses wasn’t just giving Joshua a nickname or moniker. He was adding a prefix to Hoshea’s name that referenced YHWH. This resulted in the name Joshua, which, as you saw above, means “YHWH saves” or “YHWH is salvation.” Thereby, the name Hoshea (“salvation”) became Yehoshua (“YHWH is salvation”) – that is, Joshua.

A generation later, Joshua would succeed Moses as the leader of all Israel. (Notice, by the way, that it’s YHWH – “the LORD” – doing the commissioning in the verse below.)

Deuternomy 31:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time for you to die is near; call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

Over the centuries, Hebrew names were shortened in everyday speech. Thus the name Yehoshua had become Yeshua by the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

In New Testament times, many Jewish parents were still naming their sons Yeshua after Moses’ brave successor. In one particular case, a male child would be born in Bethlehem whose parents were divinely directed to name him Yeshua, which in Greek would be Iēsous, and in English Jesus.

When that child became a man, it would become apparent that the passing of the torch from Moses to Joshua referred to in the quote from Deuteronomy above turned out to foreshadow this much greater torch transfer:

John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

That YHWH’s name is in the name of Jesus has far more meaning than I have time to explain here. But please don’t ever forget this connection.