[Please read the previous posts leading to this explanation of the translator regarding using the Tetragrammaton, among other info. Unfortunately this is not available in ebook form that is usually downloadable from amazon.com, but please check out bookstores under the category “Religion” for a hard or paperback copy. —Admin1]
—————————
ON THE NAME OF GOD
AND ITS TRANSLATION

Image from crepanelmuro.blogspot.com
THE READER WILL IMMEDIATELY NOTICE THAT THE PERSONAL NAME OF THE BIBLICAL GOD appears in this volume as “YHWH.” That is pretty standard scholarly practice, but it does not indicate how the name should be pronounced. I would recommend the use of the traditional “”the LORD” in reading aloud, but others may wish to follow their own custom. While the visual effect of “YHWH” may be jarring at first, it has the merit of approximating the situation of the Hebrew text as we now have it, and of leaving open the unsolved question of the pronunciation and meaning of God’s name. Some explanation is in order.
The name of God has undergone numerous changes in both its writing and translation throughout the history of the Bible. At an early period the correct pronunciation of the name was either lost or deliberately avoided out of a sense of religious awe. Jewish tradition came to vocalize and pronounce the name as “Adonai,” that is, “the/my Lord,” a usage that has remained in practice since late antiquity. Another euphemism, regularly used among Orthodox Jews today, is “Ha-Shem,” literally, “The Name.”
Historically, Jewish and Christian translations of the Bible into English have tended to use “Lord,” with some exceptions (notably, Moffatt’s “The Eternal”). Both old and new attempts to recover the “correct” pronunciation of the Hebrew name have not succeeded; neither the sometimes-heard “Jehovah” nor the standard scholarly “Yahweh” can be conclusively proven.
For their part, Buber and Rosenzweig sought to restore some of what they felt was the name’s ancient power; early drafts of their Genesis translation reveal a good deal of experimentation in this regard. They finally settled on a radical solution: representing the name by means of capitalized personal pronouns. The use of YOU, HE, HIM, etc., stemmed from their conviction that God’s name is not a proper name in the conventional sense, but rather one which evokes his immediate presence. Buber and Rosenzweig—both of whom wrote a great deal about their interpretation (see Buber and Rosenzweig 1994) based it on their reading of Ex. 3:14, a text in which another verbal form of YHWH appears, and which they translated as “I will be-there howsoever I will be-there” (i.e. my name is not a magical handle through which I can be conjured up; I am ever-present). . . .
The B-R rendering has its attractiveness in reading aloud, as is demonstrated by recordings of Buber reading his text, but it is on doubtful grounds etymologically. It also introduces an overly male emphasis through its constant use of “HE,” an emphasis which is not quite so pronounced in the Hebrew. For these reasons, and out of a desire to reflect the experience of the Hebrew reader, I have followed the practice of transcribing the name as HYHWH.
Readers whoa re uncomfortable with the maleness of God in these texts may wish to substitute “God” for “he” in appropriate passages. While, as a translator, I am committed to reproducing the text as faithfully as I can, it is also true that the ancient Hebrews viewed God as a divinity beyond sexuality, and modern readers as well may see fit to acknowledge this.
GUIDE TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF HEBREW NAMES
THE PRECISE PRONUNCIATION OF BIBLICAL HEBREW CANNOT BE DETERMINED WITH CERTAINTY.
The following guide uses a standard of pronunciation which is close to that of modern Hebrew, and which will serve for the purpose of reading the text aloud.
a (e.g., Adam, Avraham, Aharon) as in father (never as in bat)
e or ei (e.g., Lea, Levi, Rahel, Esav) as the a in cape (never as the e in be)
o (e.g. Edom, Lot, Moshe) as in stone (never as in hot)
u (e.g. Luz, Zevulun, Shur) as in Buber (never as in sun)
When e occurs in both syllables of a name (e.g., Hevel, Peleg), it is generally pronounced as the e in ten. In such cases the first syllable is the accented one; generally speaking, Hebrew accents the last syllable.
When e is the second letter of a name (e.g. Devora, Yehuda, Betzalel), it is often pronounced as the a in ago.