text: why do jews (with all due respect) not want to say the divine name yahweh or jehovah?   the name "jehovah" is an english translation of the hebrew name pronounced as or similar to "yahweh" or "yehowah"; the exact original pronunciation is unknown. the four hebrew characters corresponding to the letters "yhwh" are well-recognized as the biblical personal name of almighty god, and are universally designated as "the tetragrammaton" or "the tetragram".  for centuries, most jews have superstitiously refrained from pronouncing aloud any form of the divine name. they base that superstition on the third of the ten commandments given to moses: (exodus 20:7) you must not take up the name of jehovah your god in a worthless way http://watchtower.org/e/bible/ex/chapter_020.htm?bk=ex;chp=20;vs=7;citation#bk7  over the centuries, that jewish superstition has expanded to also forbid writing or engraving any form of "yhwh", even when simply copying from one of the nearly 7000 occurences in the hebrew scriptures. in recent centuries, some superstitious jews have even forbade unabbreviated euphemisms for "yhwh"; capitalized terms such as "tetragrammaton" and (amazingly) even "the name" are forbidden by such superstitions.  more recently, the jewish superstition has ballooned out of all reasonableness by also forbidding respectful impersonal terms referring to the almighty; thus many jews insist upon writing "g-d" or "g~d" rather than "god". they may even refrain from capitalizing impersonal terms such as "creator" and "almighty".  naturally, the religious and superstitious practices of a person are between him and his creator. however, in recent decades these superstitious jews have worked to impose their superstitious sensibilities beyond their religious communities, and onto the entire populace. thus, although "yhwh' is unanimously recognized as the personal name of god, few today use any form of it in their writings and conversation.  interestingly, christendom has largely joined with superstitious jews in suppressing the use of "yahweh" and "jehovah". however, it seems that christiandom's anti-yhwh bias largely devolves from their hatred of jehovah's witnesses, the religion almost single-handedly responsible for the growing public recognition that the almighty god of judaism and christianity actually does a personal name.  it seems that too many are more interested in coddling superstition than in allowing intellectual honesty and respect for the almighty.  (psalms 83:18) that people may know that you, whose name is jehovah, you alone are the most high over all the earth  (john 17:26) [jesus said] i have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them  learn more: http://watchtower.org/e/na/ http://watchtower.org/e/20040122/