should probably be transliterated if the proper emphasis is to be retained. In the form <adonay the word means “Lord” par excellence or “Lord over all,” even as it sometimes does in the form <adon (cf. Deut. 10:17 , where God is called the “God of gods, and Lord of lords”; Josh. 3:11 , where He is called the “Lord of all the earth”).

The word <adonay appears in Gen. 15:2 : “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless,.…” This word frequently appears in Psalms ( Ps. 68:17 ; 86:3 ) and Isaiah ( Isa. 29:13 ; 40:10
).

yehwah ( 3068 ), “Lord.” The Tetragrammaton YHWH appears without its own vowels, and its exact pronunciation is debated (Jehovah, Yehovah, Jahweh, Yahweh). The Hebrew text does insert the vowels for <adonay , and Jewish students and scholars read <adonay whenever they see the Tetragrammaton. This use of the word occurs 6,828 times. The word appears in every period of biblical Hebrew.

The divine name YHWH appears only in the Bible. Its precise meaning is much debated. God chose it as His personal name by which He related specifically to His chosen or covenant people. Its first appearance in the biblical record is Gen. 2:4 : “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Apparently Adam knew Him by this personal or covenantal name from the beginning, since Seth both called his son Enosh
(i.e., man as a weak and dependent creature) and began (along with all other pious persons) to call upon (formally worship) the name of YHWH , “the Lord” ( Gen. 4:26 ). The covenant found a fuller expression and application when God revealed Himself to Abraham ( Gen. 12:8 ), promising redemption in the form of national existence. This promise became reality through Moses, to whom God explained that He was not only the “God who exists” but the “God who effects His will”: “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord [ YHWH ] 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. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord [ YHWH ] God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites …” ( Exod. 3:15-17 ). So God explained the meaning of “I am who I am” ( Exod. 3:14 ). He spoke to the fathers as YHWH , but the promised deliverance and, therefore, the fuller significance or experienced meaning of His name were unknown to them ( Exod. 6:2-8 ).

LOT

goral ( 1486 ), “lot.” This word is attested 77 times and in all periods of the language (if a traditional view of the formation of the canon is accepted).

Goral represents the “lot” which was cast to discover the will of God in a given situation: “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat” ( Lev. 16:8 —the first occurrence). Exactly what casting the “lot” involved is not known.

Since the land of Palestine was allocated among the tribes by the casting of the “lot,” these allotments came to be known as their lots: “This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom …” ( Josh. 15:1 ).

In an extended use the word goral represents the idea “fate” or “destiny”: “And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us” ( Isa. 17:14 ). Since God is viewed as controlling all things absolutely, the result of the casting of the “lot” is divinely controlled: “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” ( Prov. 16:33 ). Thus, providence (divine control of history) is frequently figured as one’s “lot.”

TO LOVE

<ahab ( 157 ), or <aheb ( 157 ), “to love; like.” This verb occurs in Moabite and Ugaritic. It appears in all periods of Hebrew and around 250 times in the Bible.

Basically this verb is equivalent to the English “to love” in the sense of having a strong emotional attachment to and desire either to possess or to be in the presence of the object. First, the word refers to