Jah

Jah or Yah (, Yāh) is a short form of יהוה (YHWH), the four letters that form the tetragrammaton, the personal name of God: Yahweh, or (Yehovah) 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. 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 "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. The name Jah is frequently employed by adherents of Rastafari to refer to God. Yahweh The name of the national god of the kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah is written in the Hebrew Bible as יהוה (YHWH), which modern scholars often render as Yahweh. The short form Jah/Yah, appears in Exodus 15:2 and 17:16, Psalm 89:9, (arguably, by emendation) Song of Songs 8:6, as well as in the phrase Hallelujah. The name of Yahweh is also incorporated into several theophoric names, however, in almost all cases the Hebrew name itself uses -yāhū, not -yāh. This does not preclude the translation of several -yāhū names without the added ū, such as Elijah (ʾĒlīyyāhū) or Hezekiah (H̱īzəqīyyahū), or the existence of several Hebrew names which do use the -yāh form, such as Jedidjah, Malchijah, and Adonijah. Yah occurs 50 times: 43 times in the Psalms, in Exodus 15:2; 17:16; and Isaiah 12:2; 26:4, as well as twice in Isaiah 38:11.