Adonai #30

Adonai means “my Lord.” It is built on adon, the ordinary Hebrew word for a master or ruler, with an ending that is usually explained as a plural of majesty plus the pronoun “my.” Unlike adon, which is used of kings, husbands, and masters, adonai in this form is used only of God. It is one of the two main ways the Old Testament addresses him directly, alongside the personal name YHWH.

Biblical Usage

Adonai appears in the language of prayer and encounter. Abram addresses God as “Lord” in Genesis 15:2 while questioning how the promise of a descendant can be true, and Moses uses it when he objects that he is not a man of words at the burning bush (Exodus 4:10). Isaiah’s temple vision opens with him seeing the Lord on a high throne (Isaiah 6:1), and Daniel’s long prayer of confession begins with an address to the Lord as a great and awesome God (Daniel 9:4). Very often it is paired with YHWH in the phrase Adonai YHWH, as in Genesis 15:2.

Theological Significance

The word has a second life as a substitute. Out of reverence, and following the commandment about not taking the divine name in vain (Exodus 20:7), Jewish readers came to say Adonai whenever the text showed YHWH, and the vowel marks added by medieval scribes to the consonants of the name are generally understood as a reminder to do this. English Bibles follow the same convention: “Lord” in ordinary type usually renders adonai, while “LORD” in capitals marks YHWH. The Greek translation made the same move with kyrios, which is how the New Testament came to call Jesus “Lord” in the same breath as the Old Testament’s name for God. Because the title stresses God’s rule over his servants, readers have traditionally taken it as the natural word for submission and worship rather than for abstract description.