Why does the KJV say JAH in Psalm 68:4?

Question

While reading Psalm 68 this morning, I came across this verse which uses the name "JAH":

Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. (KJV Psalm 68:4)

Elsewhere in the KJV the Psalms use the title 'God' but in chapter 68 verse 4 it uses the name 'JAH'.

The NIV, ESV, and NLT all say "His name is the LORD".

I am familiar with the explanations that YHWH, the name of God, is unpronouncable and that the Divine Name was not to be spoken aloud. I also understand why the Divine Name has been substituted with 'God' or 'the Lord' in most English translation.

I found a related question in Biblical Hermeneutics but I was unable to understand the answers given, mainly because I know nothing about Hebrew in particular and grammar in general. In Psalm 68:4 and Psalm 135:1 how are contractions formed in Hebrew and how does YHWH become Yah?

I would like to avoid convoluted explanations and keep this question simple if possible - what is the reasoning or explanation behind the KJV translating the name of God as Jah in Psalm 68:4? Is the manuscript being used here in the KJV different to the manuscripts being used in other translations? And why only in this one verse?

Edit: I went back to the question I referred to and found this:

Psalm 68:4 expresses the name of God as Yah. This seems obvious related to the name of God as he expounded it to Moses in Exodus 3:14. We also see the two directly connected in passages such as Psalm 135:1:

Praise Yah!

Praise the name of YHWH!

Praise him, you servants of YHWH,

Brown-Driver-Briggs says Yah is a contracted form of YHWH bearing all the full meaning of YHWH, but it does not delineate how this process occurs. The same source indicates that this is a poetic form used in song. A glance at the references to the 48 passages in which it occurs affirms this. What is the grammatical/linguistic process of Hebrew contractions and how specifically does YHWH contract to Yah?

It seems to me that within the Psalms, the contracted form of Yah has to do with it being a literary poetical form. Does that sound right?

Answer 1

This is rather uncomplicated. The name יָהּ (Yah) is simply a shortened form of יְהוָֹה (YHWH), the latter is called, "The Tetragrammaton" = "four letters" denoting the sacred name of God. The shortened form, יָהּ (Yah), occurs about 40 times in the OT: Ex 15:2, 17:16, Ps 68:4, 18, 77:11, 89:8, 94:7, 12, 102:18, 104:35, 105:45, 106:48, 111:1, 112:1, 113:1, 9, 115:17, 18, 116:19, 117:2, 118:5, 14, 17, 18, 19, 122:4, 130:3, 135:1, 3, 4, 21, 146:1, 10, 147:1, 20, 148:1, 14, 149:1, 9, 150:1, 6, Isa 12:2, 28:4, 38:11.

It is immediately clear that the use of this shortened form of the tetragrammaton is predominately used in the Psalms and prophetic-poetic passages, and thus appears to be a more poetic form of the sacred name.

In almost all cases, modern versions translate this name as "LORD", as does the KJV with the single, inexplicable exception of Ps 68:4. Just why the KJV translators made this exception is one of the many inconsistencies of the KJV. Even the NKJV perpetuates this exception.

Answer 2

I expect opinions on this question to vary, and perhaps there is no firm answer. From my 2+ years of Hebrew study, the following represents my own conclusions.

There are only a handful of verses with YAH for God in Hebrew.

Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH (בְּיָ֥הּ/by/in YAH), and rejoice before him. (Psalm 68:4, KJV)

Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD (יָ֭הּ/YAH), unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD (יְהוָֽה/YAHWEH). (Psalm 122:4, KJV)

Praise the LORD (יָהּ/YAH); for the LORD (יְהוָ֑ה/YAHWEH) is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant. (Psalm 135:3, KJV)

Psalm 68:4 is the only one of these that does not also use "Yahweh" in its full spelling. The other verses help to demonstrate the intent of the shortened usage, and it is probably as much for variety as anything.

Hebrew, like many languages, does have some contractions. For example, the full word for "that/which/who" in Hebrew is "אֲשֶׁ֥ר/asher". However, there are contracted forms for this common word, such as "שַׁ/she" which might be prefixed to another word (more than one contracted form exists).

In this case with "YAH", the spelling is rather special. If one looks closely, one can see a dagesh (a dot near the center of the letter) in the heh.

Yet, as even Wikipedia notes, "The following letters, the gutturals, almost never have a dagesh: aleph א‎, he ה‎, chet ח‎, ayin ע‎, resh ר‎."

יָ֭הּ

But there it is!

The dagesh serves two possible purposes in Hebrew (just one at a time): 1) It can change the phoneme of certain consonants, such as V --> B, F --> P, etc. (soft consonants become stronger); or 2) It can double the consonant, e.g. B --> BB, which also affects pronunciation, and affects syllabication.

So the dagesh in the "H" of YAH implies it should be doubled. It might even be akin to the period used for an abbreviation of a word in English, e.g. "yr." for "year".

Seeing as the word is used in parallel with the full spelling of "Yahweh," it would be illogical to conclude this was an early form of avoiding the pronunciation or spelling of God's name.

My conclusion is that it is simply an abbreviated form, used for variety so as not to sound too repetitive, akin to using "God" and "Lord" interchangeably in English when speaking so as not to be overly repetitive.