Jehovah Jireh Meaning

The Name in Genesis 22

"Jehovah Jireh" (more accurately YHWH Yireh) is a place name Abraham gives to the mountain where God provided a substitute sacrifice in place of his son Isaac:

Genesis 22:14 — "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said [to] this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen."

The Hebrew is YHWH yir'eh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה), meaning "the LORD will see" or "the LORD will provide."

Breaking Down the Hebrew

• YHWH (יהוה, Strong's H3068) — the covenant name of God, traditionally rendered "LORD" in all capitals in English Bibles. The English "Jehovah" combines the consonants YHWH with the vowels of Adonai, a medieval reading convention.
• Yireh (יִרְאֶה) — the third-person masculine singular imperfect form of ra'ah (רָאָה, H7200), "to see." In context: "he will see" or "he will see to [it]." In Hebrew idiom, "to see to" carries the meaning "to provide for."

The Meaning: "See" and "Provide" Are the Same Verb

English separates "seeing" and "providing" into different verbs; Hebrew uses one word (ra'ah) for both. The verb ra'ah can mean:

• Physical vision — to see with the eyes
• Perception — to understand, to recognize
• To "see to" a matter — to attend to, to supply, to provide

Abraham is playing on all three senses when he names the mountain YHWH Yireh. God saw the need (Abraham's command to sacrifice Isaac and the absence of a lamb), God perceived the circumstance fully, and God supplied the ram. One Hebrew verb gathers all three.

The Context: Abraham's Test

Genesis 22 — known in Jewish tradition as the Akedah ("the binding") — is one of the most narratively compressed and theologically dense chapters of the Hebrew Bible. God commands Abraham:

Genesis 22:2 — "Take now thy son, thine only [son] Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

Abraham travels three days with Isaac, two servants, and wood for the offering. At the mountain, Abraham tells the servants to wait with the donkey, telling them, "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you" (v. 5) — the plural form deliberate. Isaac asks:

Genesis 22:7–8 — "Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide (yireh) himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together."

Abraham uses the verb yireh before he gives it to the mountain as a name. The verse foreshadows what the text will narrate.

The Provision

Genesis 22:13 — "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son."

The ram is the provision — a substitute sacrifice. After offering it, Abraham gives the place its name.

"In the Mount of the LORD It Shall Be Seen"

The second half of Genesis 22:14 is an editorial note: "as it is said [to] this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." The phrase signals that the saying became proverbial in Israel — a reference point passed down through generations.

The Hebrew yera'eh (יֵרָאֶה) is the passive form of ra'ah — "it will be seen" or "it will appear." This is the third use of the same verb root in the passage. The literary effect is deliberate: "God will see" (Abraham's word in v. 8), "YHWH Yireh" (the place name in v. 14a), "it will be seen" (v. 14b). One verb three times at the chapter's climax.

Mount Moriah and the Temple

2 Chronicles 3:1 identifies Mount Moriah as the site of Solomon's temple:

"Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where [the LORD] appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite."

The mountain where Abraham experienced YHWH Yireh became the Temple Mount. Every sacrifice offered in Solomon's temple and in the Second Temple (rebuilt after the Babylonian exile) happened on the same elevation where the ram had been caught in the thicket. The naming of the place as "YHWH Yireh" gathered theological weight with every generation that walked those stones.

Among the Compound Names of God

YHWH Yireh is the first of several compound divine names in the Hebrew Bible, each revealed at a specific historical moment:

• Jehovah Jireh — "the LORD will provide" (Genesis 22:14)
• Jehovah Rapha — "the LORD who heals" (Exodus 15:26)
• Jehovah Nissi — "the LORD my banner" (Exodus 17:15)
• Jehovah Shalom — "the LORD is peace" (Judges 6:24)
• Jehovah Tsidkenu — "the LORD our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6)
• Jehovah Shammah — "the LORD is there" (Ezekiel 48:35)

Each compound reveals a facet of God's character through a specific act. "Jehovah Jireh" names God as the one who sees the need and provides the supply — first demonstrated on a specific mountain, with a specific ram, for a specific father and son.