Yehovah – יְהֹוָה means:

Hayah – הָיָה Hoveh – הֹוֶה Yihyeh – יִהְיֶה

He was He is He will be

– Ehyeh
Translated “I AM” in most English translations, the Hebrew meaning is closer to “I WILL BE.” It is not the Name, but it is the key to the meaning of the YHVH – יְהֹוָה.

The root of the word ehyeh – אֶהְיֶה – is hayah – הָיָה (HYH), the verb “to be.”

All Hebrew words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) have a 3-letter root. Verbs are declined (changed in form) according to seven conjugations. Qal is the basic, simple conjugation. All other stems are derived from it. Nearly 70% of verbs are Qal. Within each conjugation, verbs are either perfect or imperfect. Perfect verbs can be understood as indicating one time action. Imperfect verbs indicate continuous action.

Keep in mind as we move forward that where English uses separate words to indicate person (I, you, he, she, we, they, my, your, his, her, our, their, etc.), Hebrew does this through prefixes and suffixes on a single word. A single Hebrew word may contain a prefix and suffix.

איתנ – EYTaN Letters (Aleph, Yod, Tav, Nun)
Below are the four prefixes of Hebrew verbs in the Imperfect (future) forms in all conjugations. When these prefixes are seen on a verb, it indicates incomplete action and is usually translated in the future tense.

א – ‘ = I Will
י – Y = He Will
ת – T = She Will
נ – N = We Will

Qal Imperfect conjugation of the root היה – HYH – “to be”:

אהיה = Ehyeh = I will be (1st person singular)
יהיה = Yihyeh = He will be (3rd per. masc. sing.)
תהיה = Tihyeh = She will be (3rd per. fem. sing.)
נהיה = Nihyeh = We will be (1st per. plural)

הָיָה הֹוֶה יִהְיֶה

Reading from right to left, the first word above Hayah (past tense) means He was. The second word Hoveh (present tense) means He is. Finally, Yihyeh (imperfect or future tense) means He is to be (He will be). Ehyeh (first person singular, imperfect tense) means I will be.

There is a Jewish song called the “Adon Olam” which contains this explanation in the following line:

והוא היה והוא הוה והוא יהיה בתפארה
V’hu hayah, v’hu hoveh, v’hu yihyeh b’tifarah.
And He is He who was, And He is He who is,
and He is He who will be in glory.

From these three words, the Tetragrammaton is formed.

יהיה – Yihyeh (He Who is to be)
הוה – Hoveh (He Who is)
היה – Hayah (He Who was)
יהוה – Ye-hov-ah!

God’s personal name is basically an acronym made from these three phrases. The first yod – י – from Yihyeh – יהיה, the heh and vav – הו – from Hoveh – הוה, and the final heh – ה – from Hayah – היה. This acronym means He will be Who He is and Who He was!

So then, if God said “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” (I will be who I will be), then why is His name not Yihyeh (He will be)?

God is communicating through His name His eternal ongoing nature by combining all the forms of the verb ‘to be’ into one unique name! He is letting us know that He always was, He always is, and He always will be! (Does this phrase have a familiar ring to it? It should! We will get to that later.) Yehovah was revealing His nature to Moses, speaking in the first person – I AM THAT I AM – Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. But when He reveals His Shem HaMeforash that the Israelites are to remember and mention, He uses the third person – HE WAS, HE IS, HE IS TO BE – Hayah, Hoveh, Yihyeh. In other words, He refers to Himself as I AM – Ehyeh; we call Him Yehovah – YHVH.

The fact that God’s eternal nature is expressed in יְהֹוָה was/is easily understood by Hebrew speakers. This concept was also expressed in other ways in Scripture, and can also be seen in the Targum. Let’s take a look at this.

https://onscripture.blog/2020/....08/19/the-hidden-nam

 

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The Hidden Name of God – Session 3 – On Scripture

PLEASE NOTE: This is not part of The Hidden Name of God Bible Study. The Bible study version is in smaller, more easily digested portions and contains updated information. You can find those posts by clicking the Bible Study tab on the Home page. Bef