Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> I have just noticed a new piece of data concerning the pronunciation of
> YHWH. I have realised that the word YHWH appears to have a construct
> state, in the compound form YHWH C:BA'OT "Lord of hosts". But this
> compound form is consonantally identical to the absolute state (and also
> vocalised the same). If YHWH was simply the spelling of a noun form
> ending in -AH (with qamets), like Y:HOWAH, the construct state would end
> in -AT (with patah) and so be consonantally YHWT. But this form is never
> found.

Curiously, I wrote yesterday about my surprise at Gene's find of Ireneus
using exactly that form, Iaot, evidently constructus.

But another possibility is that ancient authors just did not conjugate the
divine name.

Vadim Cherny