What is God's name?  I have good news.  The answer is given directly in Exodus 3:15 where we find God revealing His name to Moses.  Here is what Moses asked God: "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'WHAT IS HIS NAME?' Then what shall I tell them?"  What follows is is seven common translations of God's direct about what His name is:

• "The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." (King James Version)
  

• "'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation." (New International Version)

• "'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you ' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations." (New American Standard Bible)

• "'God, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.' This has always been my name, and this is how I always will be known." (Message Bible)

• "The Lord, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you! This is My name forever, and by this name I am to be remembered to all generations." (Amplified Bible)

• "'The LORD, the God of your ancestors--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This will be my name forever; it has always been my name, and it will be used throughout all generations. (New Living Translation)

• "'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (English Standard Version)

Pop Quiz!  Ready?  After reading the seven translations above...

Well, after scouring through the aforequoted seven common translations, I'm sad to inform you that God's name is not in any of them.  From here, I must make two points.

1. God did not say His name is LORD, LORD, Lord, or GOD in these passages.  None of these words are in the Hebrew.  They've been added by translators.
2. God's name is found in the original Hebrew, but these seven translations have chosen to replace it.

I hope these two points concern anyone in hot pursuit of the God of the Bible.

SO, WHAT IS HIS NAME?

Well, a Hebrew version of God's name is given in the heading of this page.  But, since I can't read Hebrew, as I assume you can't either, we will have to do our best to transliterate God's name into English...

My Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible gives #3068 for God's name, which approximately transliterates without vowels: YHWH

(Quick note: It seems the original original Hebrew text didn't have vowels so I don't include them.  More discussion on this later...)

If you don't want to just trust Mr. Strong, then find a Hebrew alphabet and translate it yourself by matching the Hebrew letters above with their English equivalents.  I found this method to be very fun.  Don't forget to go from right to left as you translate.  I get YHWH or YHVH when I do this, depending on the Hebrew alphabet translation I use.

(Note: YHWH is not the Hebrew word for lord or god.)

So, it seems that most English Bibles haven't helped us to know the name which God is to be known by from generation to generation, forever.  They actually place "LORD" or "GOD" when neither "LORD" nor "GOD" are found in the original Hebrew.  This is very, very disheartening to me.  I find it hard to understand why TRANSLATORS hide the NAME OF GOD.

This seems to be the sad reality for most translations however, but let's just focus on what we now know: We know God's name!

Thus, let's return back to the original question:

The answer: YHWH!

Finally, if it were not for the misleading practices of the translators, we would have the following response to Moses' original question:

• "YHWH the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." (Jeff Geibel Version)

 

A NOTE  ABOUT PRONUNCIATION AND VOWELS

There seems to be dissenting opinions about how to actually pronounce YHWH. 

I prefer the pronunciation YaHWeH for YHWH.  Many like JeHoVaH with YHVH (Notice that the argument here would be about what vowels go where since the vowels are missing from the ancient Hebrew.).  I don't mind if you disagree with me about pronunciation.  My primary concern is that you know God has a name, and that your translation likely will not give it or anything close to it.

Nevertheless, I personally believe pronouncing YHWH as "Yahweh" is best.  This belief is based upon what I've read regarding the Greek writings around the 1st century which contain the Greek transliteration Ιαουε for YHWH and also on some neat Jewish/Hebrew translation stuff...

A good source for this information is at wikipedia.

Also, simply search Yahweh or Jehovah or YHWH or YHVH or tetragrammaton at Google.com for a myriad of resources.

 

YOUR HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

In an effort to use God's name forever, the name by which He is to be remembered from generation to generation:

• Cross out all 6,828 uses of LORD or GOD for God's name within your Bible and write in YHWH.

It is sad that we would need to resort to such a laborious task to if we wanted retain the name of God within His scriptures.

 

Thankfully, some less popular translations haven't hidden God's name.  Here are a few of them:

• Holman Christian Standard Bible:  Example, Psalm 68:4 "Sing to God! Sing praises to His name, Exalt Him who rides on the clouds — His name is Yahweh — and rejoice before Him." (Note: this translation does not use God's name most of the time.)

• (Old) American Standard Version: Example Psalm 83:18 "That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth."

• Young's Literal Translation: Example, Isaiah 42:8 "I [am] Jehovah, this [is] My name, And Mine honour to another I give not, Nor My praise to graven images.

• Darby Translation: Example, Malachi 3:16 "...A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name."

I'm sure there must be many others.  Hopefully, one day a more popular version will acknowledge God's name — YHWH.