Of course, some will dispute this
pronunciation and instead favor a
pronunciation like 'Yehvah', or 'Yahu', or
'Yehovah', since the actual pronunciation was
lost centuries ago due to the the Jewish
reverence for God's name, and their resulting
refusal to speak it out loud. But it really
won't matter in our study, because we're truly
only interested in the original Hebrew
letters, and not the pronunciation of the
name.
As with the other examples where we've
examined the original pictographic Hebrew
letters, keep in mind that the modern meanings
of these letters often are a mere shadow of
the actual mnemonic meanings, since the Hebrew
language has evolved quite a bit through the
years. Of course, this is true of all
languages, where words and meanings are
continually changing to reflect the culture.
Anyway, with this foundation laid, we can now
look at these ancient letters from the
original Hebrew, and see if anything
additional is revealed about God's name.
The Pictographs
The first letter of
the Tetragrammaton is the 'Yud',
which appropriately has a 'Y' sound in
English. The 'Yud' in pictographic form
depicts and arm and a hand, and has the
various meanings of 'Work' or 'Throw' or
'Worship'. However, the picture itself can
also be employed in these instances, therefore
the meaning can simply be 'Arm' or 'Hand' or
both 'Arm and Hand'.
The next letter would
be the 'Hey', which once
again has the English sound 'H', just as we
would imagine. The 'Hey' in this picture is
that of a man standing up, with his arms held
up in the air as if to say "Hey, look!" It
represents the act of getting one's attention
for a specific purpose. So the various
meanings of the letter are about what you
might expect, suggesting 'Look' or 'Reveal',
but it can also mean 'Breathe'.
The third letter is
the 'Vav', which can have
the English sound 'V', as by now you would
expect, but the ancient form of the Vav
carried a 'W' sound, and was called the 'Waw'.
But the Vav also can sound like an 'O' or a
'U', making it a very versatile letter. It's
both a consonant and a vowel, depending on how
it it used. You can see from the picture that
it represents a tent peg or nail, and it has
the meaning of 'Add' or 'Secure' or 'Hook'.
But as with the other pictographs, it can also
simply mean 'Peg' or 'Nail'.
Okay, finally we have
the last letter of God's name, another 'Hey',
which once again depicts someone trying to get
our attention. As with the other 'Hey' above,
this again means to 'Look' or to 'Reveal', or
alternatively can mean 'Breathe'. At first it
may seem wierd that we would have two Heys in
such a short name, and in the modern Hebrew
letters one wouldn't suspect the reason for
this. But in a moment it will make plenty of
sense.
The Hand and The Nail
When we consider all of the potential meanings
of the individual letters above, there is
really only one sensible pattern that emerges
that relates to God. The potential meanings
are included in the chart below;
| LETTER | PICTURE | MEANINGS |
| Yud | A Man's Arm and Hand | Work, Throw, Worship, Hand, Arm |
| Hey | Man with Arms Raised | Look, Reveal, Breathe |
| Vav | A Tent Peg or Nail | Add, Secure, Hook, Peg, Nail |
| Hey | Man with Arms Raised | Look, Reveal, Breathe |
I almost feel like we need a drum roll before
this last part is revealed, because the
redemptive plan of God that defines the entire
Bible is contained in His name 'Yahweh'. From
the pictographs, it is clear that God is
conveying the following revelation, which in
our English construct would be stated as;
"Behold the Hand, Behold the Nail"
There, in the very name of God himself, we
find the prophecy of our Eloheem, Jesus, at
the cross. The very name of the Father carries
the burden of the Son, once again written into
His Word from the very beginning of creation.
What more can I say?
http://www.answersintheendtimes.com/Hebrew-Studies/YHWH-The-Hand-The-Nail
The four Hebrew
letters of 'Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey' that comprise one
of the names for God Almighty are often
referred to by biblical scholars as the
'Tetragrammaton', which is merely a Greek term
for something with four letters. The
Tetragrammaton should not be confused with any
of the other names for God in the Bible, such
as Shaddai or Eloheem, but is specifically
reserved to describe the name 'Yahweh'.