Jah

"JAH" redirects here. For other uses, see JAH (disambiguation).

Jah or Yah (Hebrew: יָהּ‎, Yāh) is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is /ˈdʒɑː/, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant (Hebrew י Yodh). The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation /ˈjɑː/ explicit in an English-language context (see also romanization of Hebrew), especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.

This short form of the name occurs 50 times in the text of the Hebrew Bible, of which 24 form part of the phrase "Hallelujah", a phrase that continues to be employed by Jews and Christians to give praise to Yahweh.[1][2] In the Christian King James Version (1611) there is a single instance of JAH (capitalized), in Psalm 68:4. An American Translation (1939) and the New King James Version[3] "NKJV" (1982) follows KJV in using Yah in this verse.

While pronouncing the tetragrammaton is forbidden for Jews, articulating "Jah"/"Yah" is allowed, but is usually confined to prayer and study.[4]

The name Jah is frequently employed by adherents of Rastafari to refer to God.[5]

  1. ^ Loewen, Jacob A. (1 June 2020). The Bible in Cross Cultural Perspective (Revised ed.). William Carey Publishing. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-64508-304-7. Shorter forms of Yahweh: The name Yahweh also appears in a shortened form, transliterated Jah (pronounced Yah) in the Revised Version and the American Standard Version, either in the text or footnote: "my song is Jah" (Ex 15:2); "by Jah, his name" (Ps 68:4); "I shall not see Jah in Jah's land (Is 38:11). It is common also in such often untranslated compounds as hallelujah 'praise Jah' (Ps 135:3; 146:10, 148:14), and in proper names like Elijah, 'my God is Jah,' Adonijah, 'my Lord is Jah,' Isaiah, 'Jah has saved.'
  2. ^ Webber, Christopher L. (November 2006). A User's Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: Morning and Evening Prayer. Church Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-8192-2197-1.
  3. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Psalm 68:4 - New King James Version". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  4. ^ Clifford Hubert Durousseau, "Yah: A Name of God" in Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 42:1 (January − March 2014)
  5. ^ Ainouche, Linda (6 December 2021). Monty Howell. Milestones of Life among Rastafari. BRILL. p. 14. ISBN 978-90-04-50310-6. Rastas commonly use the word Jah to mean God, which is a shortened name form of Jehovah – Yahweh, the name of God originated in the ancient Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament.