JEHOVAH

The name by which the Deity is represented in the Hebrew Scriptures; in which language I it signifies the Self-existent, the / Am. The word itself was held in peculiar veneration by the Jews, who never allowed themselves to pronounce it in the reading of their sacred books, but substituted for it wherever it occurred the term Adonai, or Lord. This practice is maintained even to this day; nor will they write the word in perfect H°brew letters. And agreeably to this scruple they have left the word Jehovah imperfectly written over the beautiful altar-piece in the recently-erected synagogue in St. Helen's Place; making it to resemble that word, but in reality to signify the Beloved. [s. 631]