While reading the King James Bible you may have noticed that the word “god” is spelled three different ways: GOD (all uppercase letters), God (the G is capitalized and the other letters are lowercase), and god (all lowercase letters).
What is the difference?
The three spellings of “god” indicate different meanings, which are:
god (all lowercase letters): denotes a deity or an object of worship, and sometimes means “judge” or “magistrate.” It is never used to refer to God the Supreme Being.
God (capitalized G and the other letters are lowercase): In the Old Testament the Hebrew word Elohiym is translated “God.” In the New Testament “God” also refers to the Supreme Being, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
GOD (all uppercase letters): This refers to the name of God rendered Yahweh or Jehovah.
The Phrases LORD God (LORD in all uppercase letters) and Lord GOD (GOD in all uppercase letters) in the Old Testament
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew (with some parts written in Aramaic). The New Testament was written in Greek.
In the Old Testament KJV we find these two phrases which do not appear as spelled in the New Testament:
LORD God (LORD in all uppercase letters): is from the Hebrew YHWH (Yahweh, sometimes rendered as Jehovah) Elohiym. Yahweh is the name of God (whose pronunciation is debated) and Elohiym means “God,” the Supreme Being (in the singular and sometimes plural sense). So here we have LORD God as Yahweh God.
Lord GOD (GOD in all upper caseletters): are the Hebrew words Adonai YHWH (Yahweh). Adonai is translated as Lord (capital L and the rest lowercase letters), while YHWH (Yahweh) is translated as LORD (all uppercase letters.) The translators could not have the text read “Lord LORD,” so they have GOD in all uppercase letters stand for God’s name Yahweh. So in this case Lord GOD (GOD in all upper case letters) means Lord Yahweh.