Mistranslations: The Tetragrammaton: the hidden name of God

There are seven (7) terms used for the Deity in the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, but only ONE is His proper name: ה ו ה י.

· ה ו ה י -- the proper 4-letter name – called the Tetragrammaton in English from ancient Greek -- appears appears 6220 times in Scriptures[i].

It is a conflation of the verb ‘to be’ in its past-present-future infinitive forms. And it means The Eternal.

To quote our daily siddur prayers:

Adon Olam: ,וְהוּא הָיָה, וְהוּא הֹוֶה He was, He is, and He shall be in glory.
. וְהוּא יִהְיֶה, בְּתִפְאָרָה

Yehee Kavod:

מָלָֽךְ יְהוָ֥ה : םיִ֖וֹגּבַ וְיֹֽאמְר֥וּ

יִמְלֹ֖ךְ יְהוָ֥ה ׀ יְהוָ֣ה מֶ֖לֶךְ, מָלָךְ֘ יְהוָ֣ה,

לְעֹלָ֥ם וָעֶֽד

And the nations will say: The Eternal

is King. The Eternal was, the Eternal is

and the Eternal will be for ever.

(My translation)

Its abbreviation יְה appears many times as well. As a stand-alone as in Psalm 115:18 and the last verse of Psalm 150. Or hyphenated הַלְלוּ - יָה (“praise the Eternal”) or merged into one word הַלְלוּ יָה numerous times as in Psalms 106, 113, 135, 146, 147, 148, 149 and 150.

· · The term אֱלֹהִים also appear in the Bible as alternatives to the 4-letter Divine name: in all, 2598 times[ii] . Its variant אֵל appears 248 times[ii].

But אֱלֹהִים and אֵל simply mean a deity or a god. They are generic.

They are used in the Chumash and other Scriptures for pagan, false gods as well. And even for angels, powerful human rulers and judges!

Just check the extensive Brown-Driver-Briggs breakdown and Bible citations at https://biblehub.com/hebrew/430.htm .

· The fourth term is שַׁדַּי . It appears in Gen. 49:25, Num. 24: 4, 16, Psalm 68:14, 91:1, Isaiah 13:6, Ezekiel 1:24, 10:5, Joel 1:15, Ruth 1: 20, 21, numerous times in Job, and its variant אֵל שַׁדַּי in Gen. 17:1, 28:3, 35:11, 43:14, 48:3 and Exod. 6: 23.

In all, 48 times.[iii]

It is from the verb שָׁ דַ ד which means ‘to destroy’ or ‘act violently’[iv].

The Septuagint translates it as “the Almighty” παντοκράτορος in Job 5:17 and 22:25 and this has been the standard translation ever since[v].

That שַׁדַּי is NOT a real or the proper name for the God of the Bible and that only the 4-letter name is, is made clear in Exodus 6:2-3.

ב וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, אֲנִי יְהוָה.

2 And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him: 'I am the The Eternal.

ג וָאֵרָא, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם אֶל-יִצְחָק וְאֶל-יַעֲקֹב--בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי; וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה, לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם.

3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, The Eternal, I did not make Myself known to them.

(My translation)

Surprisingly, שַׁדַּי is rarely translated in the Greek Septuagint. It is simply omitted or the term for ‘god’ is substituted or some improvised phrase.

It disappears in the above verse in the Septuagint:

Exodus 6:3

Και ώφθην προς Αβραάμ και Ισαάκ και Ιακώβ ων θεός αυτών και το όνομά μου κύριος ουκ εδήλωσα αυτοίς[vi]

And I appeared to Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, as their God . And my name, the Eternal, was not manifested to them.

(My translation)

And in Gen. 17:1 the Septuagint only translates the word אֵל = diety/god, and omits י דַּ שַׁ.

א וַיְהִי אַבְרָם, בֶּן-תִּשְׁעִים שָׁנָה וְתֵשַׁע שָׁנִים; וַיֵּרָא יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אֲנִי-אֵל שַׁדַּי--הִתְהַלֵּךְ לְפָנַי, וֶהְיֵה תָמִים.

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him: 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted.

17:1 εγένετο δε Άβραμ ετών ενενηκονταεννέα και ώφθη κύριος τω Άβραμto και είπεν αυτώ εγώI1ειμιam ο θεός σου ευαρέστει …

In Psalm 91:1, it improvises ‘new wording’: שַׁדַּי is replaced with the phrase θεού του ουρανού = the God of Heaven.[vii]

Metaphors

Three other terms are used in the Bible to refer to The Eternal metaphorically: in analogies to human experience.

· אֲדֹנָי ADONAI . It means master/lord: as in the head of a household with servants and slaves. See Psalms 90 and 136.

אֲדֹנָי appears, according to Strong’s H136[viii], 448 times in the Hebrew Bible referring to The Eternal.

Moreover, אֲדֹנָי often appears back to back with the 4-letter proper name, ה ו ה י as in Gen. 15; 2,8, Deut. 3:24, 9:26, Joshua 3:13, 7:7, Judges 6:22, 16:28, 2 Samuel 7:19 (twice), 20, 22, 28, 29, 1 Kings 8:53, Psalms 69:6, 71:5, 16, 73:28, 140:7, 141: 8, Isaiah some 28 times, Jeremiah all 14 times, Ezekiel all 115 times[ix].

A total of some 164 times!

And י נָ דֹ אֲ is used in the Bible for human beings as well: the origin of the metaphor.

It appears in the polite exchange of Abraham with the Children of Heth when buying a burial cave for Sarah (Gen. 23:6, 11, 15) and many other human situations: some 161 in total[x]

It is even the hyphenated first part (or title) of a Canaanite King, Adoni-bezeq (Judges ch 1:5-7) and king Adoni-tsedeq of Jerusalem (Joshua 10:1, 3).

· מֶלֶך King As in Psalm 10:16 below. It is used for The Eternal some 30 times,[xi] usually back to back with the 4-letter proper Name.

טז יְהוָה מֶלֶךְ, עוֹלָם וָעֶד;

אָבְדוּ גוֹיִם, מֵאַרְצוֹ.

16 The ETERNAL is King for ever and ever;

the nations are perished out of His land.

· אב Father It is used as a reference to The Eternal a dozen times according to the Brown-Driver-Briggs analysis #2 at https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1.htm

In summation, then, of the seven terms used for the Deity of the Bible, only one is a proper named used EXCLUSIVELY for Him: ה ו ה י.

And it means THE ETERNAL.

Translation Problems

As will be made clear below, this ‘real name’ of the God of the Bible has been obscured -- no hidden – in the Greek, Latin and even English translations used my millions, if not billions , of people for the last two millennia.

Greek Septuagint

The Septuagint (LXX) was the first translation of the Hebrew Bible.

In the mid- third century BCE a Greek translation of the Torah/Chumash section: read aloud during services every Saturday, on Holy Days and even twice on weekdays, was commissioned either by the Greek pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus or by the large Jewish population of Alexandria who no longer read or understood Hebrew.ⁱ

Over the ensuing 150 years, all the other books of the Hebrew Canon were translated and added to the Septuagint Canon -- as well as additional texts deemed holy by the Jews of Egypt (later named the Apocrypha).[xii]

The Septuagint Canon, as transmitted over the last 2 millennia, have a major translation flaw: as they are missing any real equivalent to the Hebrew ה ו ה י, the one and only proper name for the God of the Bible.

The chart below shows the Septuagint translations for the 7 Hebrew divine references:

Hebrew Bible	meaning	Septuagint	Accurate translation
ה ו ה י	The Eternal	Κύριος	NO
אֱ ל הִ ים / אֵל	diety/god	Θεὸς	YES
שַׁדַּי	Almighty	deleted or translated variously	only twice in Job.
אֲדֹנָי	master/lord	Κύριος	YES
ך ל מ	king	βασιλεύς	YES
אב	Father	πᾰτήρ	YES

In English, the 4-letter exclusive proper name for the Divine is called the Tetragrammaton.

This term is actually ancient Greek, τετραγράμματον, meaning “the 4 letters”.

But for some reason the Septuagint did NOT translate the 4-letter Hebrew name ה ו ה י with its Greek equivalent -- or even an abbreviated version.

Even though the Hebrew source texts had the proper name ה ו ה י (which means The Eternal) some 6220 times^{^[xiii]}, instead, the Septuagint, as transmitted for the last two (2) millennia, uses in its place the word Κύριος -- which means master/lord.

This is not a proper name.

It is simply a metaphor: an analogy with the human experience of household masters with servants and slaves.

And it is a very poor substitute, as the actual Hebrew word for master/lord אֲדֹנָי appears 448 times in the Hebrew Bible when referring to The Eternal. [xiv]

As noted previous, אֲדֹנָי at times it is also used in the Bible for human beings.

Consequently, by replacing the 4-letter proper Name and ‘merging’ it with the general metaphor of ’master/lord’, the Septuagint has obscured – no hidden – the proper name of The Eternal, all 6220 times.

Such concealment is not insignificant.

Those who have relied on the Septuagint for a ‘faithful’ and ‘accurate’ translation of the Hebrew Bible original have been misled, deceived and left ‘ignorant’ of the real, only name of the God of the Bible, ה ו ה י.

Put simply, the proper name of the God of the Bible ‘disappeared’ in the Greek Septuagint translation as passed on for the last two millennia.

Why?

According to Wikipedia, the Septuagint full text that we have today is from three 4^th century copies – all of which used Κύριος^{^[xv]}.

But four (4) much earlier surviving fragments did keep the 4-letter Hebrew name, and a fifth used its Greek equivalent.[xvi]

· Three (3) used the paleo-Hebrew form .

This is the most ancient Hebrew script and used for all Hebrew writing until the destruction of the First Temple and Babylonian Exile of 586 BCE.

The continued use of this original Hebrew script for the Tetragrammaton is attested by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some 15 of these texts used the ancient script for the Divine name[xvii] while using the post-586 BCE Ketav Ashuri (Assyrian) script for all else.

· One fragment used the Ketav Ashuri ה ו ה י . The script used for hand written Bible scrolls since 586 BCE and the script still used to this day.

· And one very ancient text fragment used the matching Greek letter transcription: ΙΑΩ^{^[xviii]}.

Consequently, it is possible the ‘original’ Septuagint translation of the Chumash in mid-3^rd century BCE, and the translations of the rest of the Hebrew Bible texts during the ensuing century and a half, were all faithful to the Hebrew: preserving the proper name of God, The Eternal.

But scholars are divided on the issue: some seeing the Hebrew Tetragrammaton’s inclusion or ΙΑΩ usage as ‘recensions’ and ‘revisionist’ efforts.[xix]

Personally, the ‘revisionist’ view makes no sense.

Firstly, any scribe who could insert Hebrew -- or even the Greek letter equivalent of the Tetragrammaton -- could NOT have been coping from a Septuagint text which only had Κύριος.

To ‘restore’ the Divine name ‘after the fact’ would mean these five (5) scribes had on hand the matching Hebrew original and cross-checked each Κύριος against the Hebrew original: as the Septuagint also uses Κύριος to translate -- correctly – the Hebrew word ADONAI אֲדֹנָי which means master/lord.

As mentioned earlier, ADONAI אֲדֹנָי appears 448 times in the Hebrew Bible as a reference to God, The Eternal.

Consequently, any theory that these five (5) ancient fragments reflect efforts to ‘restore’ the Septuagint’s Κύριος with the proper Hebrew or the Greek letter equivalent, ΙΑΩ, would require these five (5) scribes to not only be experts in Greek writing, but also Hebrew.

And to have access to rare handwritten Hebrew scrolls: for the proper ‘spelling’ and writing of the Tetragrammaton, and for cross checking when to replace Κύριος and when to leave it: as the correct translation of ADONAI אֲדֹנָי.

Put simply, a most difficult and tedious ‘extra task’.

So, the following seem to me to be the only possible explanations:

1. The 5 fragments must each have had a Greek Septuagint ‘source text’ which had kept the Tetragrammaton in HEBREW.

And these ‘source texts’ had to be true copies of the original Septuagint translation, i.e., first generation copies or the original Septuagint itself.

2. The ‘source texts’ would have had י ה ו ה or

These scribes could have simply copied what was before them.

Or, possibly, ‘switched’ script if deemed ‘better’:

2.a If the ‘source text’ had י ה ו ה , the three scribes who used the more ancient

form must have been members of the reclusive group that left us the Dead Sea Scrolls: the group who regularly preserved this ancient form in fragments that date from the mid-1^st century BCE to late 1^st century CE[xx].

2b. If the source text had -- out of respect for the original biblical Hebrew as written by Moses and used on the Two Tablets of the Covenant – the one scribe who used י ה ו ה was trying to clarify the word for readers who no longer knew the ancient Hebrew script abandoned soon after 586 BCE.

3. The fragment with the Greek letter equivalent, ΙΑΩ, is a next or later generation effort for readers who no longer knew Hebrew whatsoever.

Finally, it should be noted that to copy the Hebrew into the Greek text was not simple or easy.

ΙΑΩ , the Greek Tetragrammaton equivalent, takes a mere 4 strokes to write, but the 4-letter Hebrew name in Ketrav Ashuri takes 8 strokes of the pen, and the paleo-Hebrew form takes 14 to 15 strokes.

I.e., Writing the Hebrew was much more time consuming.

As for the introduction of Κύριος, Wikipedia notes it was used in other ancient Jewish Greek writings as a substitute for the Tetragrammaton in texts that predate Christianity[xxi].

It may well be, as Wikipedia suggests, that the Jewish tradition of never saying the proper 4-letter name of The Eternal and replacing it when reading with ADONAI led to the change in the text of the Septuagint[xxii].

This ‘pious avoidance’ is visible in Medieval Jewish religious texts such as Maimonides “13 Principles of Faith” where the Tetragrammaton or even אלוהים is never used. Instead, there is a phrase ‘substitution’: “The Creator, blessed be His Name”.

https://netzarimemunah.org/2015/08/27/thirteen-principles/

The more common Orthodox substitution is הוּא בָּרוּךְ הַקָּדוֹשׁ = The Holy one, blessed be His Name.”

The Hebrew 4-letter proper name is normally never written by the Orthodox: in sermons, responsa and scholarly articles, and many write a ק (K) in place of the ﬣ (H) in אלוהים to avoid blasphemy.

Even in English, many Orthodox will write G-D (omitting the ‘O’).

Some prayer books such as those by Philip Birnbaum only print the 4-letter Hebrew name in actual Bible passages, and print instead יי in later man-made prayers.

Also, any written piece that contains the 4-letter proper name of The Eternal is seen as so holy that it must be buried in a Jewish cemetery when the text is no longer in usable condition.

These texts are called -- and variously pronounced as – SHEMOS, SHEMOT or SHEMUS, i.e. texts containing “the Name”.

According to the Talmud Bavli, with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton ceased. Prior to that, it was only said aloud by the High Priest on Yom Kippur once he entered the Holy of Holies.[xxiii]

His special dress included a tunic with bells on the bottom which would jingle as he moved (Exod. 28: 33-35). According to the 13^th century Zohar, he would enter the Holy of Holies with a long rope attached to one ankle so if the bell sounds stopped, his dead body could be pulled out safely without triggering God, The Eternal’s wrath again[xxiv].

Conclusion re: Septuagint

Whatever the origin of replacing the Tetragrammaton or even ΙΑΩ with Κύριος = “master/ lord” in the Septuagint, the simple fact is that for last 2 millennia readers who have relied upon the Septuagint to faithfully reflect the Hebrew Bible as the word of God, The Eternal, have been misled on this key aspect: as standard Septuagint translations have replaced the Tetragrammaton with the metaphor Κύριος which only means “master/lord”.

Hiding God’s name- round 2

At the end of the 4^th century CE, Pope Damasus commissioned the scholar, Jerome, to create a Latin translation of both the New Testament and the so-called Old Testament.[xxv]

Latin had long been the language of the Western Roman Empire and was now the language of the Western Church.

When Jerome began his translation of the Old Testament, he used the Septuagint texts as his sources: starting with the Psalms, Job and a few other short works.[xxvi]

However, after these were published, he moved to Bethlehem to start a monastery, met a Jew named bar Anina^{^[xxvii]} who taught him to read and understand Hebrew Bible scroll script (which only showed the consonants), and Jerome soon began anew his translations as he realized the Septuagint texts did not match the original Hebrew Bible scrolls.

His final product – based on the Hebrew original -- was published in 405 CE as the Latin Vulgate[xxviii].

It became the ‘standard’ of the Western Christian Church.

But it too ‘hid’ the proper name of God: The Eternal.

Although Jerome used Hebrew Bible scrolls as his ‘final’ sources, he used the Latin dominus wherever the Hebrew Tetragrammaton appeared.

And dominus simply means ‘master/lord’ in Latin.

Yes, Jerome correctly translated Hebrew אלוהים or אל with the Latin deus: as it means ‘god’ or ‘deity’, but by not creating a ‘new Latin word’ or Latin transliteration, i.e., IHVH, for the 4- letter proper Hebrew name of the Bible’s God – a name which means The Eternal -- Jerome ‘obscured’ the Hebrew original and mislead generations and centuries of Christians who trusted the accuracy of his Latin Vulgate translation.

Why?

I suggest there may have been a theological reason.

To ‘reinsert’ the proper exclusive name of the God of the Hebrew Bible in 405 CE could have opened up a hornet’s nest in Christian theology: one that had been ’settled’ in 325 CE.

In 325 CE, Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, organized the Council of Nicaea to synchronize various Christian practices and customs, and most importantly, to decide on the role of Jesus as God.

In particular, it was faced with Eastern following of Arius and his concept of the Christian deity:

“Arius emphasized the supremacy and uniqueness of God the Father, meaning that the Father alone is almighty and infinite, and that therefore the Father's divinity must be greater than the Son's. Arius taught that the Son had a beginning, and that he possessed neither the eternity nor the true divinity of the Father, but was rather made "God" only by the Father's permission and power, and that the Son was rather the first and the most perfect of God's creatures”. [xxix]

The view among most clergy was that Jesus, the Son “was divine in just the same sense that the Father is, coeternal with the Father .”[xxx]

The resultant Nicaea Creed became Church dogma and Arianism declared heresy[xxxi].

And in Christian theology there is only one real name in the Trinity: there is the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son named Jesus.

For Jerome to somehow translate the Hebrew proper name of God, י ה ו ה , could have opened up ‘old wounds’ and even a schism that had been ‘resolved’ some 75 years beforehand.

Consequently, the Septuagint ‘error’ continued and spread throughout the Latin speaking Western Empire and the Catholic Church.

Hiding God’s name – rounds 3 and 4

Christian English Bible

When King James commissioned the landmark and seminal English bible that bears his name, the King James Bible (1611), its editors not only used the Latin Vulgate but also the Septuagint, earlier English Bible translations and even Hebrew original scrolls[xxxii].

But the KJB continued the tradition of obscuring the actual name of the God of the Hebrew Bible and copied what the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate and earlier English translations had done: substituting for the Tetragrammaton the English word “LORD”.

Some 26 subsequent Christian bibles: from various denominations and modernization-of-wording efforts, have followed the KJB “LORD” usage[xxxiii].

But a few recent Christian bibles have tried to restore the original Hebrew by using “YHWH” (1) or “Yehweh” (1) or “Jehovah” (5).[xxxiv]

Jewish Bible translations

Unfortunately, starting with the landmark Jewish Publishing Society’s (1917) Bible, Jewish translations have followed the KJB and used “LORD” -- for all 6220 instance of the Tetragrammaton.

This includes the highly regarded Soncino Chumash (1947) and the still popular Hertz Pentateuch (1958).

And so too many prayer books which add English translations alongside the Hebrew, e.g., the Birnbaum series.

The JPS might have felt Jewish tradition required the “LORD” substitution as Jewish tradition has avoided speaking or pronouncing the Tetragrammaton for millennia as ‘too holy’.

Even the Masoretes who created vowel markings in the Middle Ages for Hebrew would use the markings for the word ADONAI אֲ דֹ נָ י around the Tetragrammaton^{^[xxxv]}.

But two Jewish translations have avoided the “Lord” mistranslation.

The Art Scroll Series in its Chumash, other Scriptural books. and in it various prayer books uses HASHEM (‘the NAME’) where the Tetragrammaton appears in the Hebrew.

Far more helpful to the reader is the Silberman Pentateuch with Targum Onkelos, Haphtaroth and Rashi’s Commentary (1985) which uses an actual, proper translation: “the Eternal”.

Translations Summary

The proper and exclusive name of the God of the Hebrew Bible -- י ה ו ה, The Eternal – has been obscured and hidden in translations as passed down through the centuries.

Neither the Septuagint -- as preserved and transmitted by Christians -- nor Jerome’s Latin Vulgate -- even though from the original Hebrew -- created an actual and distinct equivalent for the Tetragrammaton: the proper name of the Deity of the Hebrew Bible.

And this important ‘error’ has continued to mislead readers of English bible editions since at least 1611.

Both Christian and Jews.

Only a handful of recent Christian bibles and two (2) Jewish translations have removed the metaphor ‘lord/master’ and tried to restore the real name of God, the Eternal to better assist their readers and the public’s understanding.

Too long has His name been ‘lost’ to those who cannot read and understand Hebrew.

Poor translations alter the reader’s understanding of the ‘intent’ and ‘message’ of the original text.

And having the actual name of God of the Hebrew Bible ‘missing’ is much more than a simple translation ‘error’.

Words and translations matter!

Especially when they come to the name and understanding of God, the Eternal.

Messy translations

Not only did the Septuagint hide the proper name of God, י ה ו ה = The Eternal, but this omission led to other ‘complications’.

And by copying the Septuagint’s ‘lord/master’ error, Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and English Christian bibles since the KJB (1611) -- and even Jewish translations -- have ended up with inaccurate and often clumsy verses.

In brief, the failure to create a separate, distinct translation for the Hebrew 4-letter real name of the God of the Bible, left translators with unnecessary extra challenges and quandaries that forced them to ‘improvise’: to alter Holy Scripture wording and, at times, even delete them. It also resulted in verses with awkward repetition.

As explained above, Κύριος and dominus -- both of which mean ‘master/lord’ -- are poor translations for the Tetragrammaton as there was already a long established and often used Hebrew term for master/lord: ADONAI אֲ דֹ נָ י . It appears in Hebrew Scriptures as a metaphor for God 448 times.^{^[xxxvi]}

Consequently, the result is distorted translations -- even by Jewish translators as with the JPS (1917) English.

For instance, Gen. 15:2

ב וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָם, אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה מַה-תִּתֶּן-לִי, וְאָנֹכִי, הוֹלֵךְ עֲרִירִי; וּבֶן-מֶשֶׁק בֵּיתִי, הוּא דַּמֶּשֶׂק אֱלִיעֶזֶר.

https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0115.htm

2 And Abram said: 'O Lord GOD, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go hence childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?'

To avoid having to write LORD twice: for the real אֲדֹנָי and again for the Tetragrammaton, the JPS translator switches and inserts instead the word for God, i.e.,אלוהים .

Below, are two more examples of the problem: this time as a full comparisons of the original Hebrew, the JPS (1917) English, the Septuagint and by Jerome.

Example #1 Psalm 30:9, counted as Psalm 29:9 in both the Septuagint and Vulgate.

( https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2630.htm )

ט אֵלֶיךָ יְהוָה אֶקְרָא;

וְאֶל-אֲדֹנָי, אֶתְחַנָּן.

9 Unto Thee, O LORD, did I call, and unto the LORD I made supplication:

The Septuagint is: (https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=24&page=29)

9 πρὸς σέ, Κύριε, κεκράξομαι, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν μου δεηθήσομαι.

9 To thee, O Lord, will I cry;

and to my God will I make supplication.

The Latin has two versions: from the Hebrew and from the Septuagint respectively:

(https://vulgate.org/ot/psalms_29.htm , with my English translations)

ad Dominum clamabo et Dominum deprecabor

To thee, Lord, will I cry: and to my Lord I will make supplication.

ad te Domine clamabo et ad Deum meum deprecabor

To thee, Lord, will I cry: and to my God I will make supplication.

Notice the ‘adjustments’.

The JPS (1917) had to use the word ‘LORD’ TWICE.
The Septuagint altered the second Divine reference to the word ‘God’.
And Jerome struggled with copying the Septuagint or using Dominum (= Lord) TWICE.

Another example is Isaiah 51:22 which uses the 3 terms ה ו ה י , אֲדֹנָי and אלוהים back to back to back.

The first and last are combined with the suffix ךְ which is possessive and means ‘Your” or “Thy”.

This is common in the Bible. But it is noteworthy no suffix is ever added to the one and only proper name of God ה ו ה י .

Isaiah 51:22

כב כֹּה-אָמַר אֲדֹנַיִךְ יְהוָה, וֵאלֹהַיִךְ יָרִיב עַמּוֹ, הִנֵּה לָקַחְתִּי מִיָּדֵךְ, אֶת-כּוֹס הַתַּרְעֵלָה--אֶת-קֻבַּעַת כּוֹס חֲמָתִי, לֹא-תוֹסִיפִי לִשְׁתּוֹתָהּ עוֹד.

https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1051.htm

22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people: behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering; the beaker, even the cup of My fury, thou shalt no more drink it again;

As can be seen from the English translation, JPS (1917), the word ‘Lord’ appears back to back and requires the first to be mostly in lower case and the second – replacing the Tetragrammaton – to be in ALL CAPITALS.

The Vulgate translation -- to adjust – had to use the rare Dominator so as not to have Dominus

appear twice back to back.

22 haec dicit Dominator tuus Dominus et Deus tuus qui pugnavit pro populo suo ecce tuli de manu tua calicem soporis fundum calicis indignationis meae non adicies ut bibas illud ultra

https://jesusfellowship.uk/bible/Latin+Vulgate/23/51

As for the Septuagint, it has the most radical modification.

It ‘simplifies’ having three (3) terms by presenting only two of the three. And it eliminates as well the possessive ‘your/thy’ TWICE.

22 οὕτω λέγει Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὁ κρίνων τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ· ἰδοὺ εἴληφα ἐκ τῆς χειρός σου τὸ ποτήριον τῆς πτώσεως, τὸ κόνδυ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου, καὶ οὐ προσθήσῃ ἔτι πιεῖν αὐτό·

22 thus saith the Lord God that judges his people …

https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=43&page=51

Hebrew Bible style

The original Hebrew Bible texts NEVER have back to back duplications of the same term for The Eternal.

Instead, they like to reinforce the Divine name with synonyms in pairs or triplicates.

This adds to the ‘reverence’ for the Divine, creates emphasis, and adds poetic style and ‘flair’.

Final Word

It is time to restore the proper name of God to translations: be they in English, Latin, Greek or any other language.

His proper name ה ו ה י should no longer be hidden, and its meaning, The Eternal, made clear to all those who read the Bible in translation.