JEHOTAH (Heb. Yehovah; more correctly, Yahve, Yahaveh, or Yahaviih; in poetry, rah; generally believed to be derived from the verb haya, be," though scholars are far from unanimous in regard to its etymology) is one of the names employed in the Old Testament, Its meaning—if the root be haya—is, "He that is," "the Being;" or, since the word contains all the forms of the past, present, and future tenses, "the eternal One." It is generally employed to express a different conception of the Deity from that which is contained in the word E/ohim (q.v.). The latter appears to be the older term, in use before the Hebrews had attained a national existence, while Jehovah exclusively seems to denote the national God, supreme over all other deities, and who, under this name, had,' according to Exodus vi. 3, not "made himself known" to the patriarchs before the time of Moses. That .Jehovah is specifically the God of the Hebrews is clear from the fact, that the heathen deities never receive this name; they are always spoken of as Rohim. Moreover, the altars, the sacrifices, the festivals, the tabernacle, the temple, the priesthood, and the prophets, all belong emphatically to Jehovah. Gideon shouts, "The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon," as a Roman warrior would have invoked the aid of Jupiter. In one sense, the terns Jehovah is less broad and universal
in its application than Elohim, who, in the first verse of the Bible, appears as the creator of heaven and earth, and who is God over all, irrespective of nations; but another sense, it clearly indicates an advance in religious conception. While E/ohim is introduced more as an Almighty Creative Power than a "Being," Jehovah is God in full personal relation to man—he speaks to his creatures, makes covenants with them, becomes their law-giver, and desires their .homage and worship. The Hebrew writers even run their representations of the Divine personality into what seem to us' the extremest forms of anthropomorphism.—Deep reverence for the Deity and the divine name has led the Jewish church to the substitution of Adonai (Lord) in the pronunciation of Jehovah, the latter being voweled by the Masoreths like the former.
A very nice and difficult controversy with respect to the authorship and unity of the Pentateuch, has long been carried on among scholars in connection with these two names. See GENESIS and PENTATEIICII.