Origin of the word
In the Yahwist document the name Yahweh appears as early as the story of creation, Gn 2:4; Enosh is "the first to invoke the name of Yahweh," 4:26; Noah blesses "Yahweh, God of Shem," 9:26; Yahweh is the name given to God throughout the story of the patriarchs, 12:1-39:23: Abram builds an altar to Yahweh and invokes his name, 12:8; 13:4, 18; 21:33; God says to Abraham, "I am Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans," 15:7, and to Jacob, "I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac," 28:13. But the priestly tradition maintains that the ancestors did not know God under the name Yahweh and knew him only as El Shaddai, Ex. 6:3. And the Elohist account in Ex 3 makes the name Yahweh the object of a special revelation to Moses and the Israelites. Two points emerge from these divergences between the traditions; the name of God has a ( ) of the ancient tribes as early as their (nomadic) period; as a result of the revelation received at Sinai, Moses gave the name a religious meaning it had not previously had.
Meaning
The meaning is given in Ex. 3:12-15. When Moses asks the "God of the fathers" what his name is, "God said to Moses, I Am who I Am. This .....is what you must say to the sons of Israel: I Am has sent me to you." And God ( ) said to Moses, "You are to say to the sons of Israel : "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you." This is my name for all (time). In speaking of himself, God says: "I am" (Ehyeh); in speaking of God, ( n) will follow Moses' lead and say: ( e) is" (Yahweh). This story links the name of God to an ancient form of the (verb) hayah, "to be".
In saying Ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I am he (who) I am or I am who I am or I am (what) I will be," God is underscoring several points:
-that he is, in an unqualified sense, always and for ever, the God of eternity, Gn 21:33, Is 40:28; 43:12; Si 36:17; cf. ( ) 5:19, the eternal Rock, Is 26:4, the ( g) of eternity, Jr 10:10, of the ages, 1 Tim 1:17; cf. "who is, who was, and who is to come," Rv 1:4, 8; 11:17; 16:5 ( ence) the old translation of Yahweh as the Eternal One";
-that he is mysterious and inaccessible, cf. Gn 32:30; Jg 13:18; 1 Tm 6:16;
- that he is there, cf. Ezk 48:35, ( ) present and acting with his people, Ex 14:18; 17:7; 29:46; Nb 11:20; 14:9, 14, ( 2-43); 16:3; Dt 2:7; 7:21; 20:1; 31:6, Jos 22:31; Jg 1:22; 6:13; 1 K 8:57; 1 Ch 22:18; 2 Ch 13:12; 15:2; 20:17; 32:8; Ps 46:8, 12; Am 5:14; Mi 3:11; Zp 3:17; Hg 1:13; 2:4; Zc 10:5; cf. Is 7:14; 8:8, 10, with Moses and subse( ) Ex 3:12; 4:12, 15; Jos 1:5, 17; 3:7; 6:27; Jg 6:12; 1 S 3:19; 16:18; 17:37; 1 K 1:37; 2 K 18:7; 2 Ch 15:9; 17:3.