Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Lew wrote:

> The question is, is there any authority in the Hebrew to place this phrase
> in capital letters as it is done in the KJV.

Placing anything in capital letters is going to be an orthographic decision
on the part of the translators. Hebrew has no distinction between capital
and lower-case letters. The reason I suspect for capitalization in this
instance is because they're connecting it with the divine name, which is
traditionally rendered LORD (in all caps or with small caps) in English
translations. As for this connection, I think there's some basis, if nothing
else in the general shape of the terms involved. The divine name as written
in the Hebrew Bible is identical with the Aramaic cognate to Hebrew
yihye--"he will be."

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics