For anyone who has a great love for the name
"Yahweh" and who wishes to restore it to their own Bibles, please
consider the following information which comes to us from The
Companion Bible, Appendixes 30 and 32;
"All the oldest and best manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain on
every page . . . a varying number of lines of smaller writing,
distributed between the upper and lower margins. This smaller writing
is called the Massorah Magna or Great Massorah, while that in the side
margins and between the columns is called the Massorah Parva or Small
Massorah."
". . . it contains the information necessary to those into whose
trust the Sacred Text was committed, so that they might transcribe
it, and hand it down correctly." "This had been the work of the
Sopherim.Their work, under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to set the Text in
order after the return from Babylon; . . ."
"It [the Massorah] does not contain notes or comments as such, but
facts and phenomena . . . for the set purpose of safeguarding the
Sacred Text, and preventing the loss or misplacement of a single
letter or word."
"When the Hebrew Text was printed, only the large type in the columns
was regarded, and the small type of the Massorah was left, unheeded,
in the MSS. from which the Text was taken. When the translators came
to the printed Hebrew Text, they were necessarily destitute of the
information contained in the Massorah; so that the Revisers as well as
the Translators of the Authorized Version carried out their work
without any idea of the treasures contained in the Massorah; and
therefore, without giving a hint to their readers."
Among the most critical information that the Massorah provides is the
location of 134 instances where the ancient custodians of the Hebrew
Text substituted "Adonai" in place of "Yahweh" out of extreme (but
mistaken) reverence. These, in the A.V. and R.V., are all printed
"Lord".
The following list contains the 134 places were the substitutions
were made. If you wish to restore the Sacred Name of "Yahweh" to your
Bible, simply highlight or underline the word "Lord" and read
"Yahweh" when you come to it.
Gen.18:3,27,30,32;.........................Ezra
10:3................................ Ps.73:20; 77:2,
19:18; 20:4................................... Neh. 1:11; 4:14
........................7; 78:65; 79:12
Ex.4:10,13; 5:22;........................... Job
28:28................................ 86:3,4,5,8,9,12
15:17; 34:9,9 ................................Ps.2:4; 16:2; 22:19,30;
15: ............89:49,50;
Num. 14:17 .................................30:8; 35:3,17,22; 37:12;
...............90:1,17; 110:5;
Josh. 7:8 .....................................38:9,15,22; 39:7;
40:17; ...............130:2,3,6
Judg. 6:15; 13:8 .............................44:23; 51:15; 54:4;
55:9; ...............Is.3:17,18; 4:4;
1 Kgs 3:10,15; 22:6 .........................57:9; 59:11; 62:12;
66:18; .............6:1,8,11; 7:14,20
2 Kgs 7:6; 19:23 .............................68:11,17,19,22,26,32;
................8:7; 9:8,17;
Is.11:11; 21:6,8,16;..........................Ezek.18:25,29;
21:13; .................Mic.1:2
28:2; 29:13; 30:20; ...........................33:17,29
.................................Mal. 1:12,14
37:24; 38:14,16;49:14 .......................Dan.1:2; 9:3,4,7,9,15,
Lam. 1:14,15,15; 2:1, .......................16,17,19,19,19
2,5,7,18,19,20; 3:31, .......................Amos 5:16; 7:7,8;
9:1
36,37,58 ......................................Zech.9:4
To these may be added the following, where "Elohim" was treated in
the same way:
2 Sam.5:19-2; 6:9-17 - Where the A.V. has "LORD".
1 Chr. 13:12; 14:10,11,14,16; 16:1; Ps.14:1,2,5; 53:1,2,4,5; - Where
the A.V. and R.V. it still appears as "God".
(All these substitutions were done in addition to the vowel markings
of "Adonai" being applied to the four letters forming the
tetragrammaton [YHWH].