Levítico 24:11

11. Blasphemed The Seventy and Rashi erroneously render the original accurately pronounced, this being looked upon before God as a reviling of him. From this passage the rabbins, by an untenable exposition, derived their prohibition even to utter the name of Jehovah, called “the sacred tetragrammaton.” The provocation to this vilification of Jehovah is not given. It is probable that the adversary of the half Israelite had taunted him on account of his Egyptian descent as a disgrace, and adding that he had no part in the God of Israel and in his covenant, and that in the heat of passion the half-breed spoke contemptuously of Jehovah, and possibly contrasted him with the gods of his father.

The name We admit, with the rationalistic critics, that the designation of Jehovah by “the name,” is a practice of a later age. But this practice must have had a beginning, and that beginning may have been in the age of the Pentateuch. This is confirmed by the fact that in Leviticus 24:16 we have the full expression, “the name of Jehovah,” as evidently explanatory of the recently invented designation, “the name.” Hence no satisfactory proof that this piece of history is the interpolation of a later age can be derived from this phrase. From this passage we see that the Jews of this early period may have pronounced “the name” by substituting the consonants of Adonai for those of Jehovah, so that this practice cannot be regarded as a superstition originating with Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem. “This dread,” says Oehler, “sprang from the efforts of later Judaism to thrust back divinity to an unapproachable distance, and everywhere to put something between divinity and man.” The translation of Jehovah, by Κυριος , Lord, 250 years before Christ, confirms this statement. It is a strong incidental proof of the supreme godhead of Christ that he is called “the Name.” See R.V., Act 5:41 ; 3 John 1:7.

Shelomith A sad misnomer, for it signifies peacefulness. It is quite a common name in the Old Testament. Nothing more is known of this woman, who stands pilloried in history as the mother of a blasphemer.