“And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah” (Exodus 6:2).

My observation is that many avoid all forms of Jehovah/ Yahweh/Yahavah in order to stay away from the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect. Often this may be so, as very often they lose arguments with Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Decades ago the local Baptist minister, in non-confrontational discussion, suggested that is likely why the American Standard Version had lost popularity.)

On the other hand, some Jehovah’s Witnesses repeat “Jehovah” frequently, perhaps thinking “that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7).

Just as we would properly speak our parents’ first names respectfully, we should speak the name of our God softly and reverently — and with consciousness of its meaning.

The meaning of “Ya-HaVaH” may be understood from the verb havah, meaning “to become,” with “ya” indicating a future tense (more properly, subsequent tense) in first person. Hence a meaning of “continuing existence,” or even “eternal existence.” Or if it is taken to be causative (hiphil), then “He causes to become.” YaH may be understood as “the one continuing” (or like ho erchomenos in the Revelation: “who was and who is and the coming one”), or as a contraction of YaHaVaH. To speak or write the name, without reverential consciousness of its real meaning, may be to “take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain [or, for vanity].”

— Br. James Parkinson

God Gave his name, Jehovah, to Moses at Mount Sinai

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