Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Philip Engmann" <phil-eng AT ighmail.com>]

"Whenever, therefore, this nomen tetragrammaton occurred in the sacred
text, (shem hameporash hashem)[1]  they were accustomed to substitute
for it Adonai."[2]
 
The above is a quote from Gesenius's OT lexicon.[3]
 
I find it difficult to translate and interpret the phrase, shem
hameporash hashem. 
 
The best I can do is literally, "name, the distinct name", or "name, the
holy name".
 
Philip 
 
 
 

  _____  

[1] Hameporash means the distinct or the holy and it is a pual singular
masculine participle derived from the verb,  wr!po.  [Benjamin Davidson,
The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan Publishing House), 1970. Pages 507 and 635].
 
[2] H. W. F. Gesenius, Gesenius's Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old
Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1979). Page 337.
 
[3] H. W. F. Gesenius, Gesenius's Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old
Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1979). Page 337.