Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Karl,

Bernhard Lang, Professor of Old Testament and religious studies at the 
universities
of St. Andrews and Paderborn, provides the following material about the 
name Yahu:
http://www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/154.htm

Yahu

An alternative spelling and pronunciation of Yahweh, found (spelled YHW) 
on a circa 800 B.C.E. ostracon from Kuntillet Ajrud and (spelled YHW and 
YHH) in the documents written by Aramaic-speaking fifth-century B.C.E. 
Jews living in Elephantine in Egypt. The form Yahu is also used in 
biblical theophoric names (names that include the name of a god) like 
Yeho-natan (Jonathan; Judges 18:30) and Yesha-yahu (Isaiah). Although 
most scholars take Yahu to be a short form of Yahweh, it might also be 
an earlier form of the divine name.3

Yours,
Harold Holmyard