ued
for over two thousand years. The meaning of the name in pre-Mosaic times
may be inferred from the fiery storms which accompanied each theophany in
the various Scriptural passages, as well as from the root havah, which
means "throw down" and "overthrow."(140)

To the prophets, however, the God of Sinai, enthroned amid clouds of storm
and fire, moving before His people in war and peace, appeared rather as
the God of the Covenant, without image or form, unapproachable in His
holiness. As the original meaning of JHVH had become unintelligible, they
interpreted the name as "the ever present One," in the sense of _Ehyeh
asher Ehyeh_, "I shall be whatever (or wherever) I am to be"; that is, "I
am ever ready to help." Thus spoke God to Moses in revealing His name to
him at the burning bush.(141)

4. The prophetic genius penetrated more and more into the nature of God,
recognising Him as the Power who rules in justice, mercy, and holiness.
This process brought them to identify JHVH, the God of the covenant, with
the One and only God who overlooks all the world from his heavenly
habitation, and gives it plan and purpose. At the same time, all the
prophets revert to the covenant on Sinai in order to proclaim Israel as
the herald and witness of God among the nations. In fact, the God of the
covenant proclaimed His universality at the very beginning, in the
introduction to the Decalogue: "Ye shall be Mine own peculiar possession
from among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And ye shall be unto Me
a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."(142) In other words,--you have the
special task of mediator among the nations, all of which are under My
dominion.

5. In the Wisdom literature and the Psalms the God of the covenant is
subordinated to the universality of JHVH as Creator and Ruler of the
world. In a number of the Psalms and in some later writings the very name
JHVH was avoided probably on account of its particularistic tinge. It was
surrounded more and more with a certain mystery. Instead, God as the
"Lord" is impressed on the consciousness and adoration of men, in all His
sublimity and in absolute unity. The "Name" continues its separate
existence only in the mystic lore. The name _Jehovah_, however, has no
place whatsoever in Judaism. It is due simply to a misreading of the vowel
signs that refer to the word _Adonai_, and has been erroneously adopted in
the Christian literature since the beginning of the sixteenth
cent