Jehovah Jireh: What Does it Mean?

Jehovah Jireh: What Does it Mean?

Before we get to what Jireh means, let’s recall what Jehovah means. Jehovah is the personal name of God.

In Hebrew, God gives His name as YHVH. It comes from the Hebrew letters: Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey.

The original Hebrew didn’t use vowels the way English does. Because Jewish people considered the name of God (YHVH) to be too sacred to say, scholars added vowels to YHVH using the letters from the word they used for God: Adonai. This comes out to be something close to: Yahwey or Yahovah. There is no “J” sound in Hebrew, so Yahwey/Yahovah morphed into Jehovah in English. (Likewise, when we say the name Jesus, it is an English version of the name Yeshua.)

To recap, YHVH = Yahwey = Jehovah.

In most of our English language Bibles, when a verse includes the personal name of God (YHVH = Yahwey = Jehovah) it appears as LORD. All capital letters: LORD.

This personal name of God means: THE EXISTING ONE.

Now on to Jireh. Most of the time, it is explained that Jehovah Jireh means: The LORD will provide. It does mean that-but it is even deeper.

The word that is translated provide, is Strong’s 7200. The meaning of the word is: To see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider. It carries with it the idea of discerning what is seen-and doing something about what is seen.

Let’s look at a couple of places where this word is used, in Genesis 22:8 and 14.

God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We read how Abraham and Isaac make their way toward the mountain. When Isaac asks his father where the lamb for the sacrifice is—we see the first time Jehovah Jireh is used in this section:

“And Abraham said, ‘God will provide (to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider) for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,’ So the two of them walked on together.” Genesis 22:8.

Here we see that Abraham has faith that God will “see” then “provide” the lamb. Abraham believes that God will do more than just SEE- God will act-God will provide.

The tension rises as Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac. But God stops Abraham. Let’s see how this word-which is later transcribed as provide-works:

Then Abraham looked (The very same word later translated as provide), and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.” Genesis 22:13.

Abraham didn’t just look and see the ram- he looked-perceived- and did something about it. He went over to get the ram.

We see this same word in this familiar verse:

“And Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided’” Genesis 22:14.

God still sees. He sees each one of us. He perceives our situations. He still provides. Sometimes the way God provides isn’t the way we expect. Sometimes God doesn’t change our circumstances-He changes us in our circumstances.

Carla Killough McClafferty