While reading the Old Testament in the King James Bible you may have noticed that the word “lord” is spelled three different ways: LORD (all uppercase letters), Lord (the L is capitalized and the rest is lowercase) and lord (all lowercase letters).
What is the difference?
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a few portions in Aramaic. The three spellings of “lord” indicate different Hebrew words. Here are the meanings of each:
lord (all lowercase letters): This always refers to man, not God. It means “master,” or someone who has authority over another.
Lord (capitalized L, the other letters are lowercase): This refers to God in the plural form, meaning “my lords.” It is addressing the Trinitarian aspect of God and in some parts of the Old Testament it refers to the pre-incarnate Christ.
LORD (all uppercase letters): This is for the divine name of God. It has four consonant letters: YHWH and is called the tetragrammaton. The vowels were taken out so people would not speak God’s name, but would use the substitute Hebrew word Adonai instead (which means Lord, capital L and then lowercase letters). No one knows for sure how to pronounce the tetragrammaton, but it is generally agreed to be Yahweh, while some use Jehovah.
Remember:
lord (all lowercase letters): is a human master or authority figure.
Lord (capitalized L, the other letters are lowercase): is God in the plural form.
LORD (all uppercase letters): is God’s name 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 uppercase letters): 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.